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 (During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the latest
9 prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.)
11 Changes in 1.9.11 (since the 1.9.10 prerelease):
13 ** Renamed module: (rnrs bytevectors)
15 This module was called (rnrs bytevector), its name from earlier drafts
16 of the R6RS. Its name has been changed. Users of previous 1.9 preleases
17 may want to search for any stale rnrs/bytevector .go or .scm file, and
20 ** New module: (sxml match)
22 Guile has incorporated Jim Bender's `sxml-match' library. See
23 "sxml-match' in the manual for more information. Thanks, Jim!
25 ** New module: (srfi srfi-9 gnu)
27 This module adds an extension to srfi-9, `set-record-type-printer!'. See
28 "SRFI-9" in the manual for more information.
30 ** Support for R6RS libraries
32 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
33 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
34 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
35 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
36 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
38 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
40 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
41 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
42 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
44 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
46 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
49 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
50 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
51 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
54 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
55 mentioned in that compatibility list.
57 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
59 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
60 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
61 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
62 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
64 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
65 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
66 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
67 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
70 The real truth is somewhat more involved: Tree-IL doesn't exist until
71 modules have been booted, but we need the expander to boot modules, and
72 additionally we need a boot expander before psyntax is loaded. So a
73 subset of Tree-IL is defined in C, and the boot expander produces these
74 "macroexpanded" structures. Psyntax has been modified to produce those
75 structures as well. When Tree-IL loads, it incorporates those structures
76 directly as part of its language.
78 Finally, the evaluator has been adapted to accept these "expanded"
79 structures, and enhanced to better support the gamut of this subset of
80 Tree-IL, including `lambda*' and `case-lambda'. This was a much-needed
81 harmonization between the compiler, expander, and evaluator.
83 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
85 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
87 ** `sxml->xml' enhancement
89 `sxml->xml' from `(sxml simple)' can now handle the result of
90 `xml->sxml'. See bug #29260 for more information.
92 ** New module: (system vm coverage)
94 This new module can produce code coverage reports for compiled Scheme
95 code on a line-by-line level. See "Code Coverage" in the manual for more
100 The frame objects passed to VM hook procedures are now allocated on the
101 stack instead of the heap, making the next-instruction hook practical to
104 ** Add `program-free-variables' to `(system vm program)'.
108 ** New `eval-when' situation: `expand'
110 Sometimes it's important to cause side-effects while expanding an
111 expression, even in eval mode. This situation is used in
112 `define-module', `use-modules', et al, in order to affect the current
113 module and its set of syntax expanders.
115 ** Better module-level hygiene
117 Instead of attempting to track changes to the current module when
118 expanding toplevel sequences, we instead preserve referential
119 transparency relative to where the macro itself was defined. If the
120 macro should expand to expressions in the context of the new module, it
121 should wrap those expressions in `@@', which has been enhanced to accept
122 generic expressions, not just identifier references. For example, part
123 of the definition of the R6RS `library' form:
126 (define-module (name name* ...) #:pure #:version (version ...))
128 (re-export r ...) (export e ...)
129 (@@ (name name* ...) body)
132 In this example the `import' refers to the `import' definition in the
133 module where the `library' macro is defined, not in the new module.
135 ** Module system macros rewritten as hygienic macros
137 `define-module', `use-modules', `export', and other such macros have
138 been rewritten as hygienic macros. This allows the necessary referential
139 transparency for the R6RS `library' for to do the right thing.
141 ** Compiler and VM documentation updated
143 The documentation for the compiler and VM had slipped out of date; it
144 has been brought back... to the future!
146 ** Tree-IL field renaming: `vars' -> `gensyms'
148 The `vars' fields of <let>, <letrec>, <fix>, and <lambda-case> has been
149 renamed to `gensyms', for clarity, and to match <lexical-ref>.
151 ** Removed `version' field from <language>
153 Language versions weren't being updated or used in any worthwhile way;
154 they have been removed, for now at least.
156 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
158 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
159 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
163 The introductory sections of the manual have been reorganized
164 significantly, making it more accessible to new users of Guile. Check it
167 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
169 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
170 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
171 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then there was a also module
172 named `(foo)' with a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
174 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
175 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
176 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
177 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
178 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
179 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
181 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
182 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
183 days of Guile's modules.
185 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
186 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
187 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
188 record accessors appropriately.
190 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
191 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
192 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
194 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
195 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
196 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
198 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
199 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
202 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
203 namespaces instead of values.
205 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
207 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
208 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
209 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
210 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
212 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
214 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
216 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
218 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
219 and is no longer used.
221 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
223 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
224 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
225 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
226 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
227 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
230 ** Source file name canonicalization in `compile-file', `compile-and-load'
232 These file-compiling procedures now bind
233 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
234 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
235 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
236 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
238 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
240 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
241 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
242 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
245 ** Remove redundant accessors: program-name, program-documentation,
246 program-properties, program-property
248 Instead, just use procedure-name, procedure-documentation,
249 procedure-properties, and procedure-property.
251 ** Enhance documentation for support of Emacs Lisp's `nil'
253 See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
255 ** Enhance documentation for support of other languages
257 See "Other Languages" in the manual, for more details.
259 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
261 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
265 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
267 * New modules (see the manual for details)
269 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
270 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
271 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
272 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
273 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
274 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
275 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
277 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
279 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
280 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
281 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
283 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
285 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
286 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
289 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
291 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
293 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
294 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
296 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
298 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
299 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
300 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
302 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
303 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
305 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
306 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
307 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
310 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
312 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
313 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
314 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
316 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
318 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
319 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
320 parentheses. This option is on by default.
322 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
323 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS.
325 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
327 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
328 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
329 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
331 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
332 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
336 By default, if an exception is raised at the REPL and not caught by user
337 code, Guile will drop the user into a debugger. The user may request a
338 backtrace, inspect frames, or continue raising the exception. Full
339 documentation is available from within the debugger.
341 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
343 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
346 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
348 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
349 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
350 include `/path/to/lib'.
352 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
354 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
357 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
359 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
360 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
361 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
362 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
365 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
367 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
368 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
370 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
372 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
374 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
375 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
376 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
377 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
379 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
380 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
381 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
382 code, and simplifying debugging.
384 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
385 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
387 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
388 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
389 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
390 both of these situations.
392 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
393 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
394 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
395 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
397 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
399 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
400 not apply to the compiler.
402 ** No more `local-eval'
404 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
405 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
406 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
407 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
410 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
411 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
414 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
416 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
417 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
418 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
420 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
421 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
422 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
425 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
426 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
427 will be created if needed.
429 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
430 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
432 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
434 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
435 in the next prerelease.
437 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
439 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
441 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
443 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
445 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
447 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
448 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
449 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
451 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
452 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
453 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
454 procedures' docstrings for more information.
456 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
457 combining arity and formals. For example:
459 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
460 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
462 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
465 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
467 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
468 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
469 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
470 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
472 ** New language: ECMAScript
474 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
475 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
476 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
477 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
479 ** New language: Brainfuck
481 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
482 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
483 languages. See the manual for details, or
484 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
485 Brainfuck language itself.
487 ** New language: Elisp
489 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
490 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
491 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
493 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
495 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
496 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
497 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
498 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
501 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
503 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
504 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
505 properties. For example:
511 (procedure-properties foo)
512 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
514 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
517 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
519 (procedure-properties bar)
520 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
522 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
525 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
528 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
530 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
531 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
534 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
535 (define (helper x) ...)
537 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
539 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
542 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
543 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
545 ** Complete support for version information in Guile's `module' form
547 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. They may be loaded by
548 version as well. See "R6RS Version References", "General Information
549 about Modules", "Using Guile Modules", and "Creating Guile Modules" in
550 the manual for more information.
552 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
554 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
555 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
556 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
557 for more information.
559 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
561 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
562 in the manual, for more information.
564 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
567 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
568 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
570 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
572 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
574 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
576 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
577 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
578 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
579 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
580 in response to user feedback.
582 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
584 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
585 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
588 (define (helper x) ...)
589 (define-macro (foo bar)
592 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
595 (define (helper x) ...)
596 (define-macro (foo bar)
597 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
599 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
603 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
605 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
607 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
614 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
615 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
618 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
620 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
624 (define-macro (ref x) x)
627 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
628 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
629 macros before code that uses them.
631 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
634 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
636 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
637 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
638 (double-literal 2) => 4
640 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
641 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
642 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
644 (eval-when (load compile eval)
645 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
646 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
647 (double-literal 2) => 4
649 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
651 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
653 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
654 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
655 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
656 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
659 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
661 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
662 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
664 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
666 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
667 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
668 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
670 ** Incompatible change to #'
672 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
673 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
674 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
675 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
677 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
679 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
682 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
684 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
685 in the manual, for more information.
687 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
688 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
690 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
691 works (with compiled procedures)
693 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
694 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
695 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
696 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
698 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
699 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
700 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
701 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
702 number of stack frames.
704 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
705 active in the current continuation
707 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
708 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
709 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
710 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
712 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
713 through to the expanded code
715 This should result in better backtraces.
717 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
719 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
721 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
723 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
724 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
727 ** New procedure, `define!'
729 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
730 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
731 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
732 less verbose than `module-define!'.
734 ** All modules have names now
736 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
737 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
738 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
739 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
741 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
743 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
744 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
745 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
747 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
748 values to the expected number
750 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
751 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
752 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
754 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
755 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
756 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
757 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
759 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
760 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
761 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
763 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
766 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
768 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
770 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
771 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
772 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
773 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
774 the interpreter would proceed.
776 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
777 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
778 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
779 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
781 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
783 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
784 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
785 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
786 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
787 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
788 you to contact the Guile developers.
790 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
792 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
793 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
794 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
796 ** psyntax is now the default expander
798 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
799 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
802 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
803 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
804 code in question was memoized.
806 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
807 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
808 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
809 `x432' instead of `x'.
811 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
812 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
813 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
814 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
816 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
818 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
819 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
820 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
823 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
824 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
825 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
826 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
828 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
830 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
831 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
832 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
833 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
837 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
840 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
841 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
842 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
844 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
845 by nonhygienic macros.
847 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
848 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
851 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
852 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
853 (define-macro (ref x)
860 (define-syntax bind-x
862 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
863 (define-macro (ref x)
867 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
868 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
869 run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
870 its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
873 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
875 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
876 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
878 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
879 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
882 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
884 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
885 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
886 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
887 transformer procedures.
889 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
891 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
892 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
893 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
895 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
897 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
898 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
899 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
900 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
902 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
904 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
905 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
906 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
907 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
909 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
911 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
912 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
913 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
916 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
917 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
918 documentation for more details.
920 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
922 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
923 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
924 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
925 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
926 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
927 addressed by element and not by byte.
929 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
930 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
931 endianness, as one would expect.
933 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
934 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
935 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
936 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
939 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
940 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
942 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
943 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
945 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
947 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
949 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
950 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
951 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
953 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
954 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
956 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
958 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
960 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
961 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
963 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
965 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
966 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
969 ** Unicode characters
971 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
972 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
973 probably be introduced at some point.
977 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
978 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
979 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
981 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
982 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
983 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
984 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
988 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
990 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
992 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
993 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
994 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
995 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
996 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
999 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1000 code. This use is now discouraged.
1002 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1004 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1005 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1006 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1009 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1010 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1011 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1013 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1015 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1017 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1018 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1019 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1020 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1022 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1024 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1025 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1026 Unicode code points.
1028 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1030 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1031 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1032 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1035 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1037 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1038 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1039 and was unmaintained.
1041 ** Compile-time warnings
1043 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1044 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1045 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1048 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1049 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1050 `#:warnings' as above.
1052 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1053 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables.
1055 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1057 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1060 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1062 This slightly improves program startup times.
1064 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1066 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1068 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1070 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1071 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1072 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1073 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1075 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1076 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1077 implement method combinations.
1079 ** Applicable struct support
1081 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1082 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1083 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1084 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1085 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1086 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1087 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1088 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1092 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1093 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1094 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1095 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1096 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1098 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1100 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1101 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1102 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1103 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1105 ** eqv? not a generic
1107 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1108 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1109 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1110 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1112 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1114 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1115 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1116 functions are deprecated.
1118 ** Fast bit operations.
1120 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1121 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1122 it's for number crunching too.
1124 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1126 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1127 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1128 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1129 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1131 ** R6RS block comment support
1133 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1134 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1136 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1138 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1139 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1141 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1142 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1143 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1145 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1146 ;; separate compilation phase.
1147 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1149 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
1151 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
1152 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
1153 backtrace. This has been fixed.
1155 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1157 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1159 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1161 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1163 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1165 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1167 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1169 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1171 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1172 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1173 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1175 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1177 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1178 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1180 ** New readline history functions
1182 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1183 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1184 History library functions.
1186 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1187 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1189 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1192 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1194 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1195 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1196 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1197 `with-throw-handler'.
1199 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1201 * Changes to the C interface
1203 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1205 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1206 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1207 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1209 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1210 code easier and less error-prone.
1212 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1214 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1215 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1216 available to C. Have fun!
1218 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1220 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1222 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1225 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1226 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1228 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1230 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1231 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1232 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1235 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1237 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1238 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1239 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1240 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1243 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1245 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1246 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1247 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1248 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1249 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1250 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1252 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1253 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1254 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1255 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1256 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1257 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1259 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1260 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1261 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1262 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1263 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1265 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1266 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1267 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1268 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1269 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1270 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1272 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1273 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1274 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1275 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1278 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1279 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1282 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1284 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1285 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1286 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1287 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1288 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1290 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1292 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1293 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1295 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1297 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1298 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1300 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1302 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1303 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1305 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1307 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1308 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1309 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1310 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1311 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1314 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1316 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1317 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1318 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1319 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1322 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1323 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1324 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1325 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1327 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1329 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1331 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1333 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1336 ** Inline vector allocation
1338 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1339 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1340 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1341 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1344 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1346 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1347 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1351 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1352 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1353 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1354 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1355 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1357 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1359 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1360 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1361 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1362 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1363 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1364 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1368 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1369 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1370 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1371 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1373 ** Deprecate trampolines
1375 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1376 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1377 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1378 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1379 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1381 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1383 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1384 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1385 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1386 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1388 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1390 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1391 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1392 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1393 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1394 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1395 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1396 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1398 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1400 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1401 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1404 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1405 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1407 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1409 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1410 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1412 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1414 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1415 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1416 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1417 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1419 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1421 * Changes to the distribution
1423 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1425 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1426 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1429 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1431 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1432 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1434 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1436 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1437 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1438 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1441 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1443 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1444 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1446 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1448 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1449 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1451 ** Parallel installability fixes
1453 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1454 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1455 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1457 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1458 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1459 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1462 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1464 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1465 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1466 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1467 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensionsdir
1468 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1470 ** New dependency: libgc
1472 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1474 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1476 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1477 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1479 ** New dependency: libffi
1481 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1485 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1489 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1490 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1491 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1494 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1496 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1498 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1502 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1503 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1504 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1505 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1506 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1507 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1508 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1509 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1510 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1511 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1512 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1514 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1516 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1517 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1518 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1521 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1524 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1526 * New features (see the manual for details)
1528 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1530 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1532 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1533 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1534 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1536 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1538 * Changes to the distribution
1540 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1542 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1543 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1545 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1547 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1548 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1553 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1554 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1555 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1556 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1557 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1558 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1559 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1560 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1561 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1562 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1563 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1564 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1565 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1566 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1568 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1569 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1570 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1571 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1572 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1575 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1577 * Infrastructure changes
1579 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1581 The new repository can be accessed using
1582 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1583 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1585 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1587 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1589 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1593 * New features (see the manual for details)
1595 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1596 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1597 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1599 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1600 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1601 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1602 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1604 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1606 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1607 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1608 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1612 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1613 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1615 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1616 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1618 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1619 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1621 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1622 lead to a stack overflow.
1624 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1625 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1626 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1627 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1628 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1629 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1630 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1631 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1632 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1633 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1634 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1635 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1636 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1637 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1638 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1639 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1642 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1646 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1647 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1648 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1649 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1650 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1651 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1652 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1653 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1654 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1655 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1656 system and library calls.
1657 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1658 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1659 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1660 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1661 uniform vectors on AIX.
1662 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1663 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1664 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1665 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1666 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1668 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1672 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1674 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1676 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1677 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1679 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1681 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1683 * Changes to the distribution
1685 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1687 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1688 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1689 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1691 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1693 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1696 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1698 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1705 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1706 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1707 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1708 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1709 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1710 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1711 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1713 * Implementation improvements
1715 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1716 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1719 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1721 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1723 ** set-program-arguments
1726 * Incompatible changes
1728 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1730 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1731 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1732 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1733 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1738 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1739 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1740 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1741 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1742 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1743 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1745 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1746 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1747 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1748 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1749 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1750 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1751 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1752 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1753 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1754 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1755 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1756 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1757 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1758 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1759 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1760 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
1763 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
1765 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
1767 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1769 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
1770 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
1771 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
1772 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
1773 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
1774 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
1782 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
1784 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
1786 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
1788 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
1790 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
1792 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
1794 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
1795 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
1796 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
1798 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
1800 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
1802 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
1803 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
1805 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
1807 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
1808 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
1810 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
1812 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
1814 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
1816 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
1818 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
1820 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
1822 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
1824 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
1826 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
1828 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
1829 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
1830 file was on a different device.
1833 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
1835 * Changes to the distribution
1837 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
1839 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
1841 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
1843 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
1845 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
1847 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
1850 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
1852 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
1853 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
1854 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
1855 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
1856 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
1857 items like the versioned share directory name
1858 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
1860 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
1861 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
1862 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
1863 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
1864 with each micro release during a stable series.
1866 ** Thread implementation has changed.
1868 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
1869 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
1870 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
1871 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
1872 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
1875 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
1876 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
1877 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
1878 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
1881 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
1882 in which case "null" threads are used.
1884 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
1885 "Blocking", and others.
1887 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
1889 This is a milder form of deprecation.
1891 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
1892 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
1893 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
1894 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
1895 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
1897 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
1898 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
1900 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
1902 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
1903 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
1905 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
1908 This SRFI is always available.
1910 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
1912 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
1913 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
1914 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
1915 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
1918 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
1920 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
1921 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
1922 parameters without currying.
1924 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
1926 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
1927 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
1929 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
1930 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
1933 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
1934 with a renaming import, for example.
1936 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
1938 The official version is good enough now.
1940 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
1942 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
1943 provided. Use 'make html'.
1945 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
1947 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
1948 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
1949 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
1950 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
1952 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
1954 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
1957 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1959 ** New command line option `-L'.
1961 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
1963 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
1965 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
1966 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
1968 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
1970 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
1971 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
1973 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
1975 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
1976 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
1979 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
1982 (define-module (demo)
1986 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
1989 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1991 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
1993 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
1994 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
1995 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
1997 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
1999 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2000 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2002 ** New function hashx-remove!
2004 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2006 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2007 barriers and dynamic states.
2009 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2010 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2011 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2014 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2015 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2016 Barriers" in the manual.
2018 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2019 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2021 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2023 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2024 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2025 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2026 variable %load-path.
2028 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2030 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2031 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2033 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2034 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2035 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2037 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2038 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2040 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2041 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2042 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2044 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2045 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2046 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2049 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2050 substrings and read-only strings.
2052 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2053 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2056 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2058 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2067 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2068 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2069 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2071 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2072 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2073 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2074 on an ANSI terminal:
2076 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2077 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2080 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2082 See the manual for details.
2084 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2086 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2089 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2091 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2092 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2093 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2094 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2096 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2097 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2098 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2101 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2103 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2104 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2115 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2119 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2124 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2128 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2132 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2135 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2136 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2137 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2138 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2140 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2141 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2144 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2147 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2151 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2153 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2154 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2155 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2158 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2161 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2163 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2166 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2167 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2170 (define-module (foo)
2175 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2176 has been detected is to
2178 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2179 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2180 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2183 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2186 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2188 to your .guile init file.
2190 ** New define-module option: :replace
2192 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2195 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2196 for the core binding `format'.
2198 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2200 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2201 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2203 (define-module (foo)
2204 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2206 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2209 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2211 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2212 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2213 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2215 ** New function: effective-version
2217 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2218 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2219 to the distribution" above.
2221 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2223 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2224 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2226 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2228 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2229 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2231 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2233 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2234 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2237 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2239 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2241 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2243 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2244 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2245 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2248 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2249 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2250 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2251 'system-async-mark'.
2253 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2254 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2256 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2257 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2258 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2261 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2263 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2264 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2267 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2268 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2270 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2271 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2272 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2273 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2274 level for the current thread.
2276 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2278 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2280 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2281 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2284 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2286 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2288 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2291 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2293 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2296 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2297 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2298 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2300 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2301 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2302 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2303 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2314 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2316 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2319 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2321 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2322 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2323 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2334 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2336 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2337 them is also done exactly, of course:
2342 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2343 for exact arguments.
2345 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2346 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2348 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2350 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2351 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2352 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2354 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2355 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2357 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2359 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2362 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2364 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2365 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2367 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2370 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2371 result when both its arguments are exact.
2373 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2375 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2376 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2377 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2379 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2381 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2382 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2383 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2385 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2388 ** pretty-print has more options.
2390 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2391 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2392 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2394 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2396 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2397 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2398 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2400 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2402 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2403 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2405 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2407 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2408 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2411 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2413 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2414 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2415 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2416 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2417 without the soft port blocking.
2419 ** Deprecated: undefine
2421 There is no replacement for undefine.
2423 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2424 have been discouraged.
2426 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2427 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2428 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2431 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2433 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2435 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2436 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2437 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2438 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2441 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2442 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2443 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2445 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2447 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2448 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2449 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2450 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2451 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2452 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2454 * Changes to the C interface
2456 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2457 take a 'delete' function argument.
2459 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2460 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2462 This is an incompatible change.
2464 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2466 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2467 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2468 --disable-deprecated.
2470 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2472 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2473 Scheme values has been added.
2475 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2476 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2479 - int scm_is_* (...)
2481 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2482 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2484 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2486 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2487 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2490 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2492 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2493 scm_from_int for ints.
2495 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2496 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2497 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2499 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2501 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2502 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2503 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2506 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2508 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2510 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2512 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2513 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2514 following alternatives.
2516 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2517 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2518 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2519 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2521 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2522 do the validating for you.
2524 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2525 have been discouraged.
2527 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2528 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2531 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2533 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2534 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2537 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2539 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2542 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2545 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2547 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2548 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2550 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2551 scm_truncate_number should have.
2553 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2554 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2556 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2559 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2560 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2561 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2563 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2564 easier to use from C.
2566 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2567 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2569 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2570 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2571 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2574 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2575 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2576 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2577 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2580 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2581 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2582 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2583 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2584 and is thus quite efficient.
2586 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2588 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2589 about the character encoding.
2591 Replace according to the following table:
2593 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2594 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2595 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2596 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2597 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2598 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2599 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2600 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2601 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2603 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2604 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2606 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2608 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2609 now also available to C code.
2611 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2613 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2614 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2615 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2617 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2620 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2622 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2623 unceremoniously removed.
2625 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2626 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2627 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2629 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2630 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2631 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2632 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2633 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2634 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2637 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2639 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2640 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2641 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2642 manual for more details.
2644 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2645 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2647 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2648 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2649 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2651 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2653 Migrate according to the following table:
2655 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2656 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2657 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2658 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2659 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2660 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2661 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2663 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2664 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2665 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2666 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2667 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2668 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2669 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2671 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2673 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2674 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2676 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2677 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2678 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2679 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2681 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2683 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2684 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2685 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2687 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2688 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2690 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2691 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2692 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2693 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2695 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2697 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2698 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2699 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2700 prevent a potential memory leak:
2707 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2709 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2710 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2712 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2713 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2720 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2721 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2725 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2727 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2729 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2730 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2731 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2733 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2734 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2736 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2738 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2740 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2741 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2742 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2744 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2745 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2747 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2748 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2749 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2750 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2753 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2755 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2756 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2757 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2759 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
2761 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
2762 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
2764 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
2766 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
2767 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
2769 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
2771 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
2772 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
2773 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
2775 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
2777 You should not have used them.
2779 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
2781 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
2782 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
2784 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
2786 This macro is not intended for public use.
2788 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
2790 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
2792 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
2794 Use scm_is_real instead.
2796 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
2798 Use scm_is_complex instead.
2800 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
2802 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
2803 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
2805 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
2806 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
2808 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
2809 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
2811 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
2813 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
2816 ** New function: scm_effective_version
2818 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2819 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2820 to the distribution" above.
2822 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
2824 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
2825 arguments are now passed directly:
2827 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
2829 This is an incompatible change.
2831 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
2833 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
2834 function in the init section.
2836 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
2838 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
2840 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
2841 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
2842 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
2843 stays roughly constant.
2845 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
2846 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
2847 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
2848 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
2849 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
2852 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
2853 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
2854 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
2855 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
2857 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
2858 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
2859 objects for every type.
2862 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
2864 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
2866 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
2868 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
2869 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
2870 initializes a new cell (see below).
2872 ** New functions for memory management
2874 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
2875 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
2876 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
2877 cause aborts in long running programs.
2879 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
2880 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
2882 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
2883 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
2884 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
2885 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
2886 details and for upgrading instructions.
2888 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
2889 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
2890 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
2892 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
2894 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
2895 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
2896 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
2897 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
2898 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
2900 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
2901 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
2902 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
2904 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
2905 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
2907 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
2909 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
2910 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
2911 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
2912 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
2913 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
2915 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
2917 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
2920 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
2922 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
2924 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
2926 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
2927 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
2929 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
2931 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
2932 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
2934 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
2935 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
2937 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
2939 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
2941 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
2942 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
2943 blocking it is not well defined.
2945 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
2947 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
2948 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
2949 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
2950 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
2951 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
2952 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
2953 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
2954 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
2955 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
2956 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
2957 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2958 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
2959 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
2960 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
2961 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
2962 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
2963 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
2964 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2965 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
2966 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
2967 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
2968 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
2969 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
2970 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
2971 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
2972 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
2973 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
2974 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
2975 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
2976 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
2977 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
2979 * Changes to bundled modules
2983 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
2984 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
2985 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
2986 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
2987 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
2990 Changes since Guile 1.4:
2992 * Changes to the distribution
2994 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
2996 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
2998 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
2999 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3000 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3001 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3002 indicate major changes in Guile.
3004 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3005 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3006 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3007 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3009 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3010 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3011 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3012 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3013 micro version number.
3015 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3017 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3019 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3020 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3022 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3024 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3025 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3026 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3028 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3030 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3031 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3032 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3035 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3037 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3040 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3042 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3043 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3045 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3047 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3048 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3051 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3053 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3056 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3059 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3061 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3063 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3064 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3065 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3067 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3069 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3071 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3074 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3076 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3078 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3080 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3081 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3082 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3084 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3086 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3088 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3089 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3098 See README there for more info.
3100 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3101 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3104 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3106 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3108 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3110 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3111 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3112 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3114 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3116 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3117 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3118 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3120 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3121 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3123 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3126 (oop goops describe)
3128 (oop goops active-slot)
3129 (oop goops composite-slot)
3131 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3132 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3133 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3135 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3137 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3138 in the default environment:
3140 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3141 %read-line write-line
3143 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3144 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3146 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3148 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3151 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3152 can be used for similar functionality.
3154 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3156 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3157 it defines two procedures:
3159 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3161 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3162 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3163 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3166 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3168 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3169 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3170 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3171 write large strings.
3173 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3175 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3176 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3178 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3180 for complete documentation.
3182 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3184 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3185 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3186 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3187 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3189 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3190 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3194 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3195 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3196 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3199 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3202 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3203 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3205 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3206 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3209 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3212 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3214 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3216 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3218 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3220 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3221 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3222 Scheme programs easier.
3224 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3225 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3226 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3227 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3228 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3231 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3232 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3234 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3237 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3239 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3240 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3241 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3244 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3246 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3248 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3249 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3250 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3251 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3252 was also ASCII, for example.
3254 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3256 tag - no replacement.
3257 fseek - replaced by seek.
3258 list* - replaced by cons*.
3260 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3264 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3265 (define m (make-safe-module))
3266 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3267 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3268 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3270 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3272 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3273 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3274 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3276 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3278 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3279 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3280 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3281 from the issues related to the module system.
3283 *** New function: load-extension
3285 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3287 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3289 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3290 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3291 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3293 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3295 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3296 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3297 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3298 support dynamic linking).
3300 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3302 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3303 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3304 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3305 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3308 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3309 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3310 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3311 library and initialize it explicitly.
3313 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3314 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3316 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3318 (define-module (foo bar))
3320 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3322 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3324 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3325 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3327 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3328 (null-environment 5)
3329 (interaction-environment)
3335 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3337 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3338 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3339 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3340 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3342 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3343 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3344 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3345 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3346 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3347 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3348 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3349 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3350 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3351 one eval to the next.
3353 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3354 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3355 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3356 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3357 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3359 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3360 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3361 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3362 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3363 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3364 used in a lexical environment.
3366 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3367 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3368 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3369 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3370 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3371 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3373 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3375 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3376 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3377 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3378 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3379 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3381 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3382 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3383 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3385 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3386 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3388 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3389 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3390 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3392 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3393 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3395 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3396 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3397 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3398 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3401 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3402 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3403 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3404 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3406 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3407 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3408 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3410 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3411 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3412 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3413 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3414 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3416 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3418 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3419 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3420 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3422 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3423 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3424 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3426 See manual for more info.
3428 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3430 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3431 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3432 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3434 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3436 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3437 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3438 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3440 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3441 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3442 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3443 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3445 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3447 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3448 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3450 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3451 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3452 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3453 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3454 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3457 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3458 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3459 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3460 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3461 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3462 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3464 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3465 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3466 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3467 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3468 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3470 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3471 objects are usually permanent.
3473 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3474 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3476 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3478 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3479 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3482 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3486 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3491 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3493 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3494 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3495 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3496 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3498 ** New function `make-object-property'
3500 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3501 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3505 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3506 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3510 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3511 source properties eventually.
3513 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3515 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3516 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3517 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3519 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3520 will be removed in the next release.
3522 ** New define-module option: pure
3524 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3529 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3532 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3534 Export names NAME1 ...
3536 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3537 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3541 (define-module (foo)
3543 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3546 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3551 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3553 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3555 ** New function: port? X
3557 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3558 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3560 ** New function: file-port?
3562 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3564 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3566 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3567 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3568 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3569 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3570 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3572 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3574 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3575 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3576 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3577 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3578 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3581 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3583 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3584 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3585 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3586 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3589 ** New function: crypt password salt
3591 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3594 ** New function: chroot path
3596 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3598 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3600 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3603 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3605 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3607 ** New function: getpass prompt
3609 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3612 ** New function: flock file operation
3614 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3616 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3618 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3621 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3623 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3624 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3625 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3626 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3627 of the temporary file.
3629 ** New function: open-input-string string
3631 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3632 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3633 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3635 ** New function: open-output-string
3637 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3638 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3640 ** New function: get-output-string
3642 Return the contents of an output string port.
3644 ** New function: identity
3646 Return the argument.
3648 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3649 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3651 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3653 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3654 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3655 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3658 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3659 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3661 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3663 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3664 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3665 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3668 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3669 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3670 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3674 Use `identity' instead.
3680 ** Deprecated: return-it
3684 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3686 Use `string-length' instead.
3688 ** Deprecated: flags
3690 Use `logior' instead.
3692 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3694 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3695 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3696 port-for-each is more flexible.
3698 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3699 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3700 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3702 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3704 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3706 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3708 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3710 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3712 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3713 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3715 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3716 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3718 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3719 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3721 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3723 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3724 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3726 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3727 Use module system operations for all variables.
3729 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3731 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3734 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3736 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3737 The following bugs have been fixed:
3739 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3740 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3743 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3744 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3745 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3747 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3748 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3750 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3751 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3754 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3755 The expansion used to be like so:
3757 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3759 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
3761 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
3763 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
3764 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
3766 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
3768 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
3769 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
3770 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
3774 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
3775 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
3777 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
3782 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
3783 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
3785 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
3786 and `d', other keywords allowed.
3787 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
3789 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
3792 * Changes to the C interface
3794 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
3796 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
3797 with "_t". What a concept.
3799 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
3801 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
3803 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
3807 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
3808 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
3810 *** C Functions removed
3812 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
3813 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
3814 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
3815 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
3816 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
3817 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
3818 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
3820 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
3822 Use scm_mem2string instead.
3824 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
3826 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
3828 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
3829 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
3831 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
3833 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
3836 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
3838 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
3840 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
3842 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
3843 Evaluation" in the manual.
3845 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
3847 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
3848 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
3850 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
3852 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
3853 Constructors" in the manual.
3855 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
3857 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
3858 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
3860 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
3862 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
3864 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
3865 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
3866 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
3868 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3870 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
3872 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
3873 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
3874 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
3877 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3879 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
3881 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
3882 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
3884 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
3886 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
3887 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
3888 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
3889 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
3891 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
3892 scm_primitive_property_ref
3893 scm_primitive_property_set_x
3894 scm_primitive_property_del_x
3896 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
3897 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
3899 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
3901 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
3902 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
3903 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
3904 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
3906 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
3908 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
3909 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
3910 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
3911 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
3912 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
3913 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
3914 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
3916 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
3917 scm_remember_upto_here
3919 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
3921 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
3923 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
3924 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
3926 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
3928 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
3930 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
3932 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
3934 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
3936 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
3937 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
3938 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
3939 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
3940 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
3941 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
3943 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
3945 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3947 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
3948 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3949 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
3951 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
3953 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
3954 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3955 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
3957 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
3959 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
3960 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
3963 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
3966 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
3967 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3970 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3972 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
3974 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
3976 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3978 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
3980 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
3982 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
3983 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
3984 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
3985 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3986 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
3987 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
3988 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
3989 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3990 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
3991 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
3992 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
3993 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
3994 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
3995 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
3996 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
3998 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
3999 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4000 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4001 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4002 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4003 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4004 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4005 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4006 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4007 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4008 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4009 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4010 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4011 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4012 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4013 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4014 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4015 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4016 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4017 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4018 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4019 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4020 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4021 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4022 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4023 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4024 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4025 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4026 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4028 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4030 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4032 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4033 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4035 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4037 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4039 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4041 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4043 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4045 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4047 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4049 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4051 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4054 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4055 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4057 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4059 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4061 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4063 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4065 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4067 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4069 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4071 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4074 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4076 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4078 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4080 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4081 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4083 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4084 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4086 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4088 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4089 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4090 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4092 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4094 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4096 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4097 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4099 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4100 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4101 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4102 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4104 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4105 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4106 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4108 Use the new ones from above instead.
4110 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4112 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4113 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4114 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4116 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4117 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4119 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4120 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4123 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4124 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4126 Use the new functions instead.
4128 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4131 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4133 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4135 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4138 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4140 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4143 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4145 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4148 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4149 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4150 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4152 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4154 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4155 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4157 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4158 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4159 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4160 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4163 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4165 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4166 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4167 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4168 inexact for an exact.
4170 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4171 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4172 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4175 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4176 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4177 accept an inexact argument.
4179 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4180 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4182 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4185 ** New number validation macros:
4186 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4190 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4192 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4193 scm_unprotect_object.
4195 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4197 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4199 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4202 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4204 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4208 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4210 * Changes to the distribution
4212 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4214 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4215 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4216 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4217 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4218 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4219 obtain these programs.
4220 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4221 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4223 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4224 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4225 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4226 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4227 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4229 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4230 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4231 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4232 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4236 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4239 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4240 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4241 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4242 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4244 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4246 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4248 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4249 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4251 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4252 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4254 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4255 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4257 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4258 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4259 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4260 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4262 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4264 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4268 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4269 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4271 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4273 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4274 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4276 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4277 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4278 number of objects of that kind.
4280 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4282 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4283 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4284 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4285 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4286 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4288 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4290 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4292 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4294 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4297 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4299 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4301 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4303 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4305 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4307 ** New command line option --debug
4309 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4311 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4313 ** New help facility
4315 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4316 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4317 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4318 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4319 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4320 (help) gives this text
4322 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4323 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4325 Examples: (help help)
4327 (help "output-string")
4329 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4331 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4333 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4334 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4337 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4338 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4339 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4342 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4343 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4344 use absolute filenames when possible.
4346 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4347 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4348 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4351 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4353 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4354 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4355 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4356 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4358 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4360 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4362 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4363 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4364 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4366 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4367 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4368 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4370 (read-enable 'positions)
4371 (debug-enable 'debug)
4373 ** Backtraces in scripts
4375 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4379 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4381 at the top of the script.
4383 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4384 The second enables backtraces.)
4386 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4388 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4389 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4390 substantially faster than before.
4392 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4393 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4395 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4396 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4398 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4400 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4401 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4402 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4404 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4405 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4406 when this hook is run in the future.
4408 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4409 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4411 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4413 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4414 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4417 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4418 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4419 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4421 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4422 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4424 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4425 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4427 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4428 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4429 in order not to need further allocation.)
4431 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4434 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4435 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4436 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4437 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4439 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4441 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4444 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4446 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4449 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4450 GC in percent of total heap size
4453 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4454 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4456 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4458 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4459 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4461 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4463 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4464 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4466 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4468 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4469 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4473 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4474 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4476 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4478 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4480 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4482 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4484 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4486 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4487 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4489 (simple-format port message . args)
4490 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4491 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4492 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4493 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4494 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4495 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4496 Does not add a trailing newline."
4498 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4500 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4501 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4503 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4504 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4506 ** Deprecated: list*
4508 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4510 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4512 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4513 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4515 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4516 is returned as result.
4518 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4520 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4522 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4524 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4525 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4528 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4530 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4532 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4533 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4535 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4537 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4539 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4541 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4543 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4545 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4547 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4549 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4550 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4551 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4553 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4556 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4558 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4559 the readability of argument checking.
4561 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4563 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4565 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4567 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4568 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4569 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4570 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4571 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4572 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4573 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4575 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4577 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4579 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4580 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4582 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4584 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4585 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4588 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4590 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4591 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4592 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4594 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4595 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4596 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4598 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4599 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4600 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4601 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4602 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4603 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4604 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4606 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4607 scm_end_input (object);
4608 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4609 ptob->flush (object);
4611 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4612 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4615 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4617 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4619 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4620 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4621 removed in a future version.
4623 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4625 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4626 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4627 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4628 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4630 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4631 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4633 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4636 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4638 in your configure.in.
4640 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4645 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4651 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4653 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4657 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4658 (define make-message string-append)
4660 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4662 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4666 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4671 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4675 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4677 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4678 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4680 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4682 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4683 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4684 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4685 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4686 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4687 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4689 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4690 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4691 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4693 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4694 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4695 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4698 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4699 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4700 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4701 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4702 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4704 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4705 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4706 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4707 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4708 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4709 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4710 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4712 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4714 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4715 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4716 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4718 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4719 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4720 KEY in the calling thread.
4722 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4723 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4724 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4725 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4726 associated with the key.
4728 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4730 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4731 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4733 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4735 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4736 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4737 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4739 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4741 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4742 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4744 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4746 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4748 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4749 returned is undefined.
4751 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4752 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4753 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4755 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4756 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4757 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4759 ** New C level GC hooks
4761 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
4763 scm_before_gc_c_hook
4766 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
4767 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
4768 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
4770 scm_before_mark_c_hook
4771 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
4772 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
4774 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
4775 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
4778 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
4780 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
4781 allocation parameters
4783 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
4784 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
4785 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
4789 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
4790 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
4791 scm_default_max_segment_size
4793 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
4795 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
4796 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
4798 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
4800 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
4801 object and count on the object being protected until
4802 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
4804 The functions also have better time complexity.
4806 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
4807 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
4808 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
4809 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
4810 are no longer needed.
4812 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
4814 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
4815 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
4816 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
4817 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
4819 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
4821 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
4823 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
4825 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
4826 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
4827 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
4828 until this issue has been settled.
4830 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
4832 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
4834 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
4837 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
4839 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4841 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
4842 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
4843 descriptors were checked.
4845 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
4846 atomically written to a pipe.
4848 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
4849 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
4850 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
4851 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
4852 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
4853 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
4854 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
4857 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
4858 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
4859 is changed without calling tzset.
4861 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
4863 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
4864 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
4865 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
4867 (define write-network-long
4868 (lambda (value port)
4869 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4870 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
4871 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
4873 (define read-network-long
4875 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4876 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
4877 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
4879 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
4880 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
4882 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
4883 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
4884 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
4885 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
4887 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
4888 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
4889 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
4890 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
4894 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
4896 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4900 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
4901 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
4902 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
4908 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
4909 for a description of available commands.
4911 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
4912 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
4913 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
4915 (debug-enable 'backwards)
4917 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
4918 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
4920 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
4922 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
4924 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
4925 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
4926 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
4927 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
4928 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
4929 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
4932 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
4934 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
4935 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
4936 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
4937 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
4939 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
4940 the file and should not be affected by this change.
4942 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
4944 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4946 ** Readline support has changed again.
4948 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
4949 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
4950 to activate readline is now
4952 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
4955 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
4957 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
4958 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
4959 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
4962 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
4963 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
4964 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
4967 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
4968 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
4969 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
4970 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
4971 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
4972 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
4974 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
4975 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
4977 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
4979 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
4980 object it receives is the same string passed to
4981 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
4982 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
4983 string, not the suffix.
4985 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
4986 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
4987 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
4989 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
4991 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
4992 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
4993 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
4994 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
4997 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4999 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5001 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5002 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5003 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5004 appear from left to right.
5006 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5009 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5011 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5012 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5014 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5018 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5020 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5022 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5024 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5025 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5026 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5028 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5030 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5032 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5034 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5037 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5039 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5040 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5041 mentioning it here anyway.
5043 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5045 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5046 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5047 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5048 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5051 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5053 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5055 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5057 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5058 otherwise return #f.
5060 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5062 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5063 returned by `opendir'.
5065 ** New function: using-readline?
5067 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5069 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5071 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5072 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5074 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5076 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5078 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5079 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5080 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5082 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5084 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5085 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5087 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5089 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5090 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5091 documentation slots are not yet used.
5093 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5095 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5096 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5097 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5102 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5103 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5104 (string-append x y))
5106 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5107 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5109 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5110 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5111 be made in a clean way.]
5113 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5115 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5117 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5119 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5120 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5122 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5124 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5126 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5128 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5130 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5131 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5132 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5133 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5136 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5138 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5140 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5142 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5144 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5145 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5147 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5149 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5151 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5153 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5155 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5156 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5157 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5158 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5159 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5160 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5162 This should not make any difference for most users.
5164 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5166 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5167 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5169 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5171 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5172 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5173 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5174 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5175 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5177 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5179 It is now replaced by:
5181 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5183 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5184 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5186 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5188 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5189 This might change when we get the new module system.
5191 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5195 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5197 * Changes to mailing lists
5199 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5201 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5204 * Changes to the distribution
5206 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5208 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5209 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5210 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5211 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5212 you explicitly specify it.
5214 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5215 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5216 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5217 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5218 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5221 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5222 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5223 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5224 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5226 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5227 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5228 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5231 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5233 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5236 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5238 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5240 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5241 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5242 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5243 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5245 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5246 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5249 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5251 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5252 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5253 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5254 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5255 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5256 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5257 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5258 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5270 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5271 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5272 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5273 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5274 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5279 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5280 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5288 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5293 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5294 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5297 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5298 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5299 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5300 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5302 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5304 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5306 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5307 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5309 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5311 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5313 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5314 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5316 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5319 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5321 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5323 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5325 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5327 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5329 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5331 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5332 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5333 when the hook was created.
5335 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5336 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5337 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5338 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5339 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5340 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5341 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5342 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5343 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5345 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5346 the dlopen family of functions.
5348 ** New function `provided?'
5350 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5351 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5352 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5353 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5355 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5357 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5358 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5359 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5360 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5363 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5364 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5365 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5366 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5368 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5369 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5370 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5373 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5374 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5375 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5376 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5377 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5378 but with the flag set.
5380 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5382 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5383 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5385 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5386 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5387 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5388 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5389 available Scheme format implementations.
5391 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5392 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5393 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5394 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5395 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5396 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5397 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5398 output is to the current error port if available by the
5399 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5402 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5403 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5404 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5405 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5406 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5407 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5408 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5409 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5411 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5412 be executed at a time.
5415 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5417 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5418 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5419 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5421 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5422 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5423 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5424 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5425 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5426 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5427 general form of a directive is:
5429 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5431 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5433 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5435 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5436 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5437 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5440 Any (print as `display' does).
5444 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5448 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5452 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5458 print number sign always.
5461 print comma separated.
5463 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5469 print number sign always.
5472 print comma separated.
5474 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5480 print number sign always.
5483 print comma separated.
5485 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5491 print number sign always.
5494 print comma separated.
5496 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5501 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5505 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5508 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5511 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5514 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5519 prints `y' and `ies'.
5522 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5525 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5530 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5534 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5537 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5538 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5540 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5543 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5544 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5546 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5549 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5551 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5553 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5556 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5558 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5560 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5563 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5566 The sign appears before the padding.
5574 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5576 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5581 print N page separators.
5591 newline is ignored, white space left.
5594 newline is left, white space ignored.
5599 relative tabulation.
5605 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5607 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5610 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5612 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5615 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5618 converts by `string-upcase'.
5621 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5623 jumps N arguments forward.
5626 jumps 1 argument backward.
5629 jumps N arguments backward.
5632 jumps to the 0th argument.
5635 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5637 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5638 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5640 take argument from N.
5643 true test conditional.
5646 if-else-then conditional.
5652 default clause follows.
5655 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5657 at most N iterations.
5660 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5663 args from the rest of arguments.
5666 args from the rest args (lists).
5677 aborts if N <= M <= K
5679 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5682 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5685 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5691 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5693 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5695 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5696 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5697 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5698 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5699 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5700 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5704 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5708 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5714 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5717 Print a `#\space' character
5719 print N `#\space' characters.
5722 Print a `#\tab' character
5724 print N `#\tab' characters.
5727 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5728 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5729 must be a positive decimal number.
5732 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5733 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5734 be processed by `read'.
5737 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5738 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5739 be processed by `read'.
5742 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5745 prints format version.
5748 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5749 and format it accordingly.
5751 *** Configuration Variables
5753 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5754 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5755 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5756 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5759 format:symbol-case-conv
5760 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
5761 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
5762 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
5763 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
5764 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
5766 format:iobj-case-conv
5767 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
5768 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
5771 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
5774 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
5780 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
5781 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
5782 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
5783 `format' padding style.
5786 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
5787 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
5788 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
5789 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
5793 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
5794 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
5795 directive parameters or modifiers)).
5798 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
5799 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
5800 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
5801 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
5802 parameters or modifiers)).
5805 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
5807 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
5809 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
5810 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
5812 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
5813 string-downcase! functions.
5815 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
5816 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
5818 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
5821 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
5824 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
5825 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
5827 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
5829 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
5830 the symbol had be read by `read'.
5832 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
5833 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
5834 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
5835 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
5836 would if STRING were input.
5838 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
5840 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
5841 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
5842 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
5843 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
5846 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
5848 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
5849 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
5852 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
5854 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
5855 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
5857 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
5858 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
5860 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
5861 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
5862 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
5863 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
5865 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
5866 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
5868 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
5869 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
5870 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
5872 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
5873 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
5875 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
5876 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
5877 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
5878 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
5879 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
5881 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
5882 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
5883 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
5884 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
5885 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
5886 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
5888 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
5889 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
5890 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
5893 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
5894 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
5895 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
5896 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
5897 the following grammar:
5898 ((apples (single-char #\a))
5899 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
5900 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
5901 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
5902 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
5903 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
5904 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
5905 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
5906 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
5907 last option in its combination)
5909 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
5910 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
5911 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
5912 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
5914 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
5915 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
5916 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
5918 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5919 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5920 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
5922 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
5923 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
5924 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
5925 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
5926 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
5927 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
5928 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
5929 ordinary argument strings.
5931 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
5932 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
5933 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
5934 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
5936 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
5937 as a list, associated with the empty list.
5939 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
5940 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
5941 - a required option is omitted
5942 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
5943 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
5944 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
5945 - an option predicate fails
5950 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
5953 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
5954 (verbose (required? #f)
5957 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
5958 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
5959 (predicate ,string?))))
5961 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
5962 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5964 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5965 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
5966 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
5967 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
5970 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
5972 It will be removed in a few releases.
5974 ** New syntax: lambda*
5975 ** New syntax: define*
5976 ** New syntax: define*-public
5977 ** New syntax: defmacro*
5978 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
5979 Guile now supports optional arguments.
5981 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
5982 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
5983 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
5984 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
5985 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
5987 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
5988 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
5989 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
5991 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
5993 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
5994 and examples for `lambda*':
5997 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
5999 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6000 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6001 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6002 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6003 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6004 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6005 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6006 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6008 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6010 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6011 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6012 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6013 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6015 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6016 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6017 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6018 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6019 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6020 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6021 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6022 and until the procedure is called.
6024 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6026 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6027 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6028 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6029 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6030 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6031 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6032 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6033 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6034 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6035 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6037 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6038 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6039 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6040 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6043 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6045 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6046 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6047 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6048 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6050 ** New syntax: and-let*
6051 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6053 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6054 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6055 (<variable> <expression>)
6058 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6059 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6060 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6063 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6064 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6065 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6066 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6067 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6068 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6069 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6071 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6072 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6073 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6074 shadow earlier bindings.
6076 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6078 ** New sorting functions
6080 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6081 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6082 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6083 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6085 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6086 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6089 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6090 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6091 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6093 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6094 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6095 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6096 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6098 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6099 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6100 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6101 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6102 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6105 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6106 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6107 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6108 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6109 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6110 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6112 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6113 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6114 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6116 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6117 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6118 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6121 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6122 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6123 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6125 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6126 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6128 ** New built-in random number support
6130 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6131 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6132 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6133 returned have a uniform distribution.
6135 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6136 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6137 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6138 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6139 effect of the `random' operation.
6141 *** New variable: *random-state*
6142 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6143 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6144 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6145 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6146 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6149 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6150 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6151 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6152 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6153 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6155 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6156 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6157 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6158 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6159 initialized using SEED.
6161 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6162 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6163 range between 0 and 1.
6165 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6166 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6167 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6168 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6169 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6170 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6171 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6173 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6174 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6175 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6176 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6177 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6178 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6180 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6181 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6182 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6183 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6185 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6186 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6187 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6188 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6190 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6191 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6192 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6194 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6196 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6199 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6200 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6203 ** New function: make-guardian
6204 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6205 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6206 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6207 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6208 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6210 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6211 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6212 one object if at all.
6214 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6215 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6216 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6218 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6219 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6220 read again in last-in first-out order.
6222 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6223 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6225 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6227 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6228 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6229 file position is used.
6231 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6232 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6233 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6235 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6236 redefined using seek.
6238 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6239 size is not supplied.
6241 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6242 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6244 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6245 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6247 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6249 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6250 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6251 and returns the contents as a single string.
6253 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6254 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6255 lists in serial order.
6257 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6258 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6259 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6261 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6262 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6263 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6264 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6266 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6267 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6268 and #f if an error occured.
6270 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6272 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6273 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6274 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6275 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6277 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6279 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6282 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6284 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6287 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6291 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6292 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6294 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6295 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6299 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6301 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6303 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6304 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6306 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6308 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6309 might change when we get the new module system.
6311 ** The smob interface
6313 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6314 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6316 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6318 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6322 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6323 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6324 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6325 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6326 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6327 will be freed by the default free function.
6329 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6330 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6331 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6332 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6334 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6335 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6336 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6337 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6339 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6341 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6342 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6346 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6347 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6348 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6350 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6351 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6352 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6353 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6355 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6356 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6357 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6359 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6360 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6361 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6362 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6364 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6365 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6366 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6368 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6372 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6374 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6375 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6376 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6378 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6379 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6380 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6382 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6383 a string port's buffer.
6385 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6386 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6387 function pointers which together define the current random number
6388 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6389 number library functions.
6391 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6394 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6395 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6398 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6399 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6401 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6402 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6404 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6405 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6408 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6409 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6410 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6411 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6413 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6414 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6415 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6416 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6417 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6418 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6419 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6421 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6422 by libguile and the application.
6424 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6425 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6426 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6427 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6429 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6430 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6432 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6433 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6434 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6436 ** Random number library functions
6437 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6438 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6439 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6441 The default random state is stored in:
6443 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6444 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6445 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6450 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6452 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6453 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6454 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6455 isn't a random state.
6457 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6458 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6460 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6461 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6462 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6463 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6465 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6466 Return 32 random bits.
6468 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6469 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6471 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6472 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6474 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6475 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6477 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6478 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6480 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6481 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6482 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6486 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6488 * Changes to the distribution
6490 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6491 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6492 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6495 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6496 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6497 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6499 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6500 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6501 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6502 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6505 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6506 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6507 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6509 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6511 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6513 *** Function: batch-mode?
6515 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6518 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6520 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6521 case has not been implemented.
6523 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6524 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6525 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6528 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6529 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6531 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6533 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6535 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6537 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6538 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6541 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6542 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6543 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6544 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6547 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6549 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6550 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6551 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6552 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6553 find those libraries.
6555 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6556 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6559 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6561 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6562 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6563 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6564 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6566 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6567 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6568 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6572 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6574 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6575 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6576 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6579 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6580 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6581 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6582 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6584 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6585 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6588 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6589 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6590 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6591 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6592 compiler where to find the libraries.
6594 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6595 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6596 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6598 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6599 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6600 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6601 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6602 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6606 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6608 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6609 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6610 internationalization support.
6612 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6613 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6614 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6615 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6616 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6618 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6619 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6620 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6621 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6622 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6624 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6625 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6626 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6627 any GNU mirror site.
6629 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6631 ** New function: add-history STRING
6632 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6633 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6634 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6636 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6638 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6639 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6640 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6643 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6644 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6645 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6647 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6649 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6652 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6653 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6656 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6657 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6658 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6659 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6660 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6661 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6663 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6664 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6665 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6666 of the form mentioned above.
6668 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6669 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6670 returned in the special `rest' list.
6672 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6673 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6675 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6677 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6679 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6681 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6682 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6683 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6684 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6685 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6686 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6687 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6688 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6691 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6693 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6695 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6696 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6699 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6700 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6701 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6705 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6706 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6707 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6708 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6709 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6710 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6711 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6712 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6715 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6717 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6718 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6719 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6721 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6723 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6724 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6726 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6727 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6728 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6730 Why do we have this function?
6731 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6732 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6733 primitive, and display it differently, and
6734 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6735 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6738 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6739 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6742 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6743 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6744 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6745 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6747 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6748 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6751 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6752 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6754 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6756 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6757 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6758 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6759 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6760 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
6761 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
6762 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
6765 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
6767 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
6768 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
6770 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
6771 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
6772 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
6773 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
6774 properly continue the print chain.
6776 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
6777 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
6778 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
6779 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
6780 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
6781 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
6782 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
6783 print-state, it is simply ignored.
6785 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
6786 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
6787 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
6788 safest to not check for these pairs.
6790 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
6791 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
6792 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
6793 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
6795 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
6797 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
6798 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
6800 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
6802 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
6804 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
6805 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
6806 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
6808 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
6809 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
6810 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
6812 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
6813 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
6814 the following functions and macros:
6816 Function: make-fluid
6818 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
6819 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
6820 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
6821 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
6822 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
6824 Function: fluid? OBJ
6826 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
6828 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
6829 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
6831 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
6832 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
6834 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
6836 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
6837 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
6838 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
6839 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
6840 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
6841 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
6842 modified by `with-fluids*'.
6844 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
6846 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
6847 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
6848 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
6849 should evaluate to a fluid.
6851 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
6853 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
6854 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
6855 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
6856 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
6857 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
6859 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
6862 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
6864 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
6866 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
6868 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
6871 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
6872 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
6873 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
6874 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
6875 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
6878 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
6879 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
6880 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
6882 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
6883 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
6884 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
6886 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
6887 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
6888 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6889 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
6891 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
6892 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
6893 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6894 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
6896 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
6897 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
6898 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
6899 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
6901 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
6902 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
6903 their revealed counts set to zero.
6905 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6906 Returns an integer file descriptor.
6908 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6909 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
6911 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6912 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
6914 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6915 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
6916 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
6918 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
6919 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
6920 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
6922 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
6923 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
6924 default environment inherited by child processes.
6926 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
6927 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
6928 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
6930 The return value is unspecified.
6932 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
6933 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
6934 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
6935 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
6936 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
6938 The return value is unspecified.
6940 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
6941 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
6949 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
6950 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
6953 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
6956 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
6957 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
6958 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
6960 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
6961 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
6962 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
6963 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
6966 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
6967 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
6969 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
6970 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
6971 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
6972 the `environ' procedure.
6974 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
6975 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
6978 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
6979 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
6981 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
6982 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
6983 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
6984 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
6986 *** procedure: times
6987 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
6988 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
6989 return a selected component:
6992 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
6996 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
6999 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7003 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7004 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7008 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7009 terminated child processes.
7011 ** Removed: list-length
7012 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7013 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7015 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7017 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7019 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7021 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7022 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7023 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7024 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7026 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7027 extra complexity it introduces.
7029 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7030 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7032 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7033 variable to any non-empty value.
7035 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7036 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7038 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7040 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7041 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7043 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7045 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7046 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7048 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7050 ** vector handling routines
7052 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7053 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7054 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7055 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7056 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7058 ** pair and list routines
7060 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7063 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7065 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7068 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7070 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7072 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7073 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7074 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7075 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7076 site-specific initialization code.
7078 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7079 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7080 initialization processes.
7082 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7083 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7084 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7085 initialized properly.
7087 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7088 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7089 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7091 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7092 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7093 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7094 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7095 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7097 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7099 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7100 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7101 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7102 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7103 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7105 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7106 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7107 which look like this:
7110 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7112 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7113 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7116 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7117 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7120 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7122 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7123 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7124 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7126 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7127 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7128 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7129 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7130 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7132 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7133 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7135 int (*free) (SCM port);
7136 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7137 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7138 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7142 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7143 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7144 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7146 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7149 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7150 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7151 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7153 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7154 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7155 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7158 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7162 struct timeval *timeout);
7164 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7165 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7166 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7167 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7168 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7169 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7171 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7172 scm_catch_body_t body,
7174 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7177 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7178 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7179 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7180 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7181 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7182 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7184 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7186 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7189 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7190 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7191 spawning threads from application C code.
7193 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7194 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7195 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7196 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7197 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7198 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7200 ** Removed functions:
7202 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7203 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7205 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7207 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7208 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7210 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7212 ** mbstrings are now removed
7214 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7215 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7217 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7219 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7220 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7221 their new names and arguments:
7223 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7224 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7225 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7226 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7229 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7231 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7233 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7236 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7238 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7239 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7240 pass a #f arg to catch.
7242 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7244 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7245 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7248 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7249 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7250 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7251 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7252 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7253 reclaim its storage.
7255 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7256 worrying that some other function you call will call
7257 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7258 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7259 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7260 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7263 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7265 * Changes to the distribution
7267 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7268 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7271 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7272 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7274 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7275 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7277 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7279 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7280 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7281 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7283 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7285 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7286 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7287 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7288 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7289 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7290 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7292 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7293 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7294 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7297 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7298 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7299 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7300 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7302 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7303 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7304 libraries to your link command:
7306 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7307 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7308 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7309 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7311 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7312 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7313 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7315 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7317 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7318 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7321 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7323 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7324 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7325 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7326 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7327 searched is system dependent.
7329 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7331 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7333 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7335 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7336 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7338 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7340 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7341 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7342 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7343 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7344 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7347 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7349 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7350 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7351 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7352 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7353 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7355 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7357 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7358 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7360 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7362 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7363 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7364 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7367 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7369 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7370 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7371 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7372 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7374 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7375 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7377 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7379 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7380 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7382 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7384 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7385 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7393 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7395 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7396 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7397 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7398 a more informative way.
7400 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7401 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7402 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7403 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7404 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7405 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7407 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7408 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7411 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7412 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7413 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7416 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7417 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7418 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7419 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7420 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7421 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7423 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7424 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7425 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7426 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7429 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7430 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7431 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7432 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7433 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7434 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7436 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7437 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7438 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7439 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7440 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7442 *** regexp functions
7444 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7445 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7446 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7448 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7449 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7450 with SCSH regular expressions.
7452 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7453 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7454 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7455 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7457 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7458 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7459 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7460 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7462 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7463 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7464 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7465 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7466 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7467 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7469 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7470 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7471 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7472 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7473 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7475 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7477 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7478 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7479 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7480 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7482 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7483 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7484 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7486 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7487 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7489 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7492 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7493 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7494 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7496 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7497 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7498 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7500 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7501 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7502 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7503 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7504 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7507 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7509 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7510 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7511 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7512 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7513 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7514 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7516 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7517 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7518 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7520 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7521 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7524 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7525 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7527 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7528 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7529 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7530 may be one of the following arguments:
7532 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7534 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7536 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7537 the regexp match is written.
7539 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7540 following the regexp match is written.
7542 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7543 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7546 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7547 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7548 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7549 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7550 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7551 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7553 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7556 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7557 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7558 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7559 written out to PORT.
7561 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7562 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7563 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7564 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7565 will return after processing a single match.
7567 *** Match Structures
7569 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7570 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7571 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7572 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7573 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7574 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7577 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7578 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7579 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7580 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7581 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7583 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7584 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7585 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7587 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7588 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7589 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7590 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7591 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7593 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7594 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7596 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7597 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7599 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7600 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7602 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7603 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7605 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7606 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7607 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7608 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7610 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7611 Return the original TARGET string.
7613 *** Backslash Escapes
7615 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7616 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7617 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7618 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7619 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7620 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7622 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7623 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7624 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7625 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7626 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7627 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7628 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7629 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7631 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7632 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7633 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7634 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7635 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7636 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7637 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7639 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7640 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7641 return the resulting string.
7643 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7644 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7645 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7646 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7647 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7648 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7649 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7650 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7651 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7652 translated to the single character `*'.
7654 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7655 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7656 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7657 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7658 consecutive backslashes:
7660 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7662 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7663 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7664 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7666 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7667 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7668 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7669 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7670 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7671 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7673 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7675 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7676 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7677 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7678 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7679 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7680 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7681 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7682 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7683 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7684 cumbersome escape syntax.
7686 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7688 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7690 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7692 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7695 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7697 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7699 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7702 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7703 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7704 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7705 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7706 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7708 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7709 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7710 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7711 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7712 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7713 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7714 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7717 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7718 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7719 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7722 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7723 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7725 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7726 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7727 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7728 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7729 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7730 installed, you can say:
7732 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7735 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7737 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7738 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7739 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7740 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7741 new dynamic roots and threads.
7744 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7746 * Changes to the distribution.
7748 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7750 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7751 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7752 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7753 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7754 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7755 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7756 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7757 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7759 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
7762 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
7763 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
7768 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7770 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
7771 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
7773 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
7774 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
7775 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
7776 the (command-line) function.
7777 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
7778 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
7779 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
7781 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
7782 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
7783 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
7784 command line arguments
7785 -ds do -s script at this point
7786 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
7787 -h, --help display this help and exit
7788 -v, --version display version information and exit
7789 \ read arguments from following script lines
7791 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
7792 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
7794 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7797 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7801 (main (command-line))
7803 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
7805 ekko a speckled gecko
7807 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
7808 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
7809 following list of command-line arguments:
7811 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
7813 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
7814 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
7815 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
7816 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
7817 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7819 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
7821 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
7823 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
7824 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
7827 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
7828 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
7829 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
7830 SCSH) for circumventing them.
7832 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
7833 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
7834 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
7835 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
7837 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
7841 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7845 If the user invokes this script as follows:
7847 ekko a speckled gecko
7849 Unix expands this into
7851 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
7853 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
7854 read from the second line of the script, producing:
7856 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7858 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
7859 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7861 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
7862 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
7863 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
7864 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
7865 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
7866 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
7867 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
7868 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
7869 it only terminates the argument list.)
7870 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
7871 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
7872 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
7873 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
7874 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
7875 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
7876 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
7877 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
7879 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7881 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
7882 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
7883 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
7884 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
7885 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
7887 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
7888 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
7889 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
7891 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
7893 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
7894 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
7895 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
7896 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
7899 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
7900 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7901 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7903 * Changes to Scheme functions
7905 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
7906 and disabled by default.
7908 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
7909 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
7910 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
7911 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
7913 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
7915 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
7917 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
7918 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
7920 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
7921 (read-set! keywords #f)
7923 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
7924 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
7925 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
7928 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
7929 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
7930 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
7933 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
7934 support for Scheme functions.
7936 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7937 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
7938 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
7939 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
7942 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7943 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
7944 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
7947 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
7948 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
7949 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
7952 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
7953 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
7954 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
7955 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
7956 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
7957 display the result as a prompt.
7958 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
7960 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
7961 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
7962 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
7965 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
7966 procedure of zero arguments.
7968 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
7969 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
7970 argument is bound in the current module.
7972 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
7973 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
7974 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
7975 public bindings into the current module.
7977 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
7978 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
7980 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
7981 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
7983 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
7984 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
7986 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
7987 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
7989 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
7990 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
7992 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
7993 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
7994 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
7995 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
7996 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
7998 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
7999 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8000 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8001 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8003 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8006 ** Changes to I/O functions
8008 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8009 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8010 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8012 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8013 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8014 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8016 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8017 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8019 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8020 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8021 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8022 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8024 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8026 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8027 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8029 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8030 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8031 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8032 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8033 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8036 'trim omit delimiter from result
8037 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8038 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8039 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8041 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8043 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8044 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8046 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8047 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8048 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8049 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8050 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8052 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8053 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8054 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8056 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8057 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8058 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8059 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8061 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8062 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8064 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8065 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8067 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8069 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8070 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8071 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8072 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8073 a delimiting character.
8074 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8076 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8077 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8078 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8079 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8080 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8081 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8083 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8084 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8086 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8087 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8088 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8090 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8091 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8092 the array to read and write.
8094 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8095 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8098 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8100 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8103 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8104 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8105 Values for COMMAND are:
8107 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8108 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8109 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8110 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8111 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8112 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8113 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8114 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8116 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8118 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8119 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8120 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8121 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8122 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8123 corresponding return set will be the same.
8125 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8128 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8129 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8130 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8131 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8132 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8133 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8134 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8135 special file being created.
8137 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8138 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8140 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8141 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8142 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8143 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8144 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8145 and originating address.
8147 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8148 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8149 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8151 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8154 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8155 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8158 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8159 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8160 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8161 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8162 this function returns #f.
8164 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8165 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8166 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8169 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8170 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8171 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8174 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8175 a valid STATUS value.
8177 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8179 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8180 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8182 Component Accessor Setter
8183 ========================= ============ ============
8184 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8185 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8186 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8187 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8188 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8189 year tm:year set-tm:year
8190 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8191 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8192 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8193 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8194 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8196 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8197 describing the host system:
8200 ============================================== ================
8201 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8202 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8203 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8204 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8205 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8207 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8208 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8209 system's user database:
8212 ====================== =================
8213 user name passwd:name
8214 user password passwd:passwd
8217 real name passwd:gecos
8218 home directory passwd:dir
8219 shell program passwd:shell
8221 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8222 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8223 system's group database:
8226 ======================= ============
8227 group name group:name
8228 group password group:passwd
8230 group members group:mem
8232 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8233 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8237 ========================= ===============
8238 official name of host hostent:name
8239 alias list hostent:aliases
8240 host address type hostent:addrtype
8241 length of address hostent:length
8242 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8244 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8245 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8249 ========================= ===============
8250 official name of net netent:name
8251 alias list netent:aliases
8252 net number type netent:addrtype
8253 net number netent:net
8255 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8256 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8260 ========================= ===============
8261 official protocol name protoent:name
8262 alias list protoent:aliases
8263 protocol number protoent:proto
8265 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8266 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8270 ========================= ===============
8271 official service name servent:name
8272 alias list servent:aliases
8273 port number servent:port
8274 protocol to use servent:proto
8276 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8277 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8280 ======================================== ===============
8281 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8282 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8283 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8284 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8286 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8287 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8288 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8290 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8291 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8293 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8294 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8296 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8297 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8299 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8301 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8303 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8304 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8305 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8307 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8308 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8309 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8310 return the remaining characters as a string.
8312 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8313 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8314 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8316 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8318 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8320 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8323 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8326 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8327 and returns the array
8329 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8330 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8331 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8333 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8335 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8336 symbol's value from C code:
8338 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8339 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8340 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8341 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8343 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8344 without assigning them a value.
8346 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8347 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8348 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8350 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8351 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8352 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8354 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8355 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8357 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8358 doesn't actually care about that.
8360 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8361 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8362 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8364 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8365 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8366 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8367 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8368 which we have just created and initialized.
8370 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8371 should one occur. We call it like this:
8372 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8374 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8375 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8376 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8377 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8378 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8379 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8382 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8383 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8384 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8385 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8386 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8387 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8388 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8391 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8392 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8393 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8394 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8395 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8398 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8399 scm_internal_catch, except:
8401 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8402 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8403 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8404 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8407 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8408 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8409 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8411 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8412 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8413 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8414 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8417 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8418 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8419 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8421 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8422 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8423 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8424 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8425 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8427 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8428 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8429 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8431 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8432 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8433 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8435 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8436 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8438 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8439 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8440 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8443 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8444 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8445 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8446 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8447 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8448 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8449 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8452 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8453 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8455 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8456 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8457 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8458 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8459 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8462 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8463 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8465 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8466 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8469 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8470 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8472 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8475 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8476 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8477 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8478 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8479 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8480 given the following arguments:
8482 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8484 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8486 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8488 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8491 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8492 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8493 command-line arguments.
8495 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8496 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8497 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8498 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8499 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8500 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8503 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8506 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8507 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8509 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8510 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8512 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8513 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8514 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8515 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8517 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8518 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8520 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8521 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8522 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8523 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8525 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8526 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8528 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8529 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8531 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8533 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8534 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8535 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8538 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8539 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8541 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8542 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8547 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8550 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8552 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8553 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8554 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8555 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8557 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8559 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8561 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8562 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8563 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8564 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8565 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8566 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8567 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8568 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8569 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8570 for more information.
8572 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8573 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8575 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8576 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8577 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8578 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8579 following two lines at the top of the file:
8581 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8584 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8585 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8586 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8588 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8590 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8592 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8595 (display (car args))
8596 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8598 (loop (cdr args)))))
8601 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8602 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8603 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8604 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8605 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8606 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8610 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8613 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8616 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8618 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8619 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8620 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8621 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8622 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8625 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8626 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8627 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8628 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8629 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8632 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8635 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8636 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8637 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8640 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8641 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8642 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8644 to see a backtrace, and
8645 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8646 to see them by default.
8650 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8652 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8654 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8655 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8658 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8659 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8660 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8661 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8664 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8665 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8666 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8667 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8668 functions which inspired them.
8670 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8671 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8675 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8677 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8679 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8680 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8683 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8684 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8685 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8687 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8688 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8689 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8690 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8691 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8693 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8695 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8696 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8697 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8700 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8703 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8705 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8706 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8707 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8708 above should serve their purposes.
8710 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8711 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8712 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8713 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8715 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8718 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8719 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8720 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8721 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8723 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8724 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8725 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8726 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8728 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8729 for the `read' function.
8732 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8733 to that of `integer?'.
8735 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8736 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8738 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8739 it simply returns the object's property list.
8741 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8742 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8743 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8744 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8746 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8748 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8751 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8753 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8754 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8756 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8758 void (*main_func) (),
8761 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
8762 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
8763 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
8764 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
8765 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
8767 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
8768 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
8769 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
8770 know which arguments have been processed.
8772 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
8773 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
8774 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
8775 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
8776 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
8778 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
8779 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
8780 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
8781 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
8782 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
8783 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
8784 people from making that mistake.
8786 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
8787 convenient ways to override these when desired.
8789 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
8791 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
8795 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
8798 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
8799 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
8800 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
8801 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
8804 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
8805 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
8806 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
8807 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
8810 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
8811 have been added to the Guile library.
8813 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
8814 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
8815 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
8818 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
8819 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
8820 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
8822 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
8823 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
8824 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
8825 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
8826 argument from the list.
8829 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
8832 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
8833 null-terminated string, and returns it.
8835 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
8836 to a Scheme port object.
8838 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
8839 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
8844 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
8846 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
8847 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
8848 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
8849 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
8850 code as a special datatype.
8852 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
8853 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
8854 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
8855 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
8856 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
8859 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
8860 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
8861 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
8862 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
8863 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
8865 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
8868 Copyright information:
8870 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8872 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8873 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8874 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8875 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8877 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8878 of this document, or of portions of it,
8879 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8880 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8885 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"