1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the stable branch:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
23 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
24 At the moment it is being used to handle Guile's bignums.
26 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
28 Guile now has config.h and libguile/scmconfig.h. The former is not
29 installed and is private. The latter is installed and used by Guile's
30 public headers. config.h is generated by configure and autoheader,
31 and scmconfig.h is generated by a small C program, gen-scmconfig at
32 build time based in part on the contents of config.h.
34 Seen libguile/__scm.h and gen-scmconfig.c for more information.
36 Note too that nearly all public defines are now set to either 1 or 0
37 rather than being set to 1 or left undefined. See gen-scmconfig.c and
38 the GNU Coding Guidelines for the rationale. However, pre-existing
39 defines that were not renamed were not changed. i.e. GUILE_DEBUG is
40 still either 1 or undefined.
42 ** The INSTALL file is now the generic automake installed one.
44 Guile specific instructions can be found in the README.
46 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
48 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
49 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
50 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
51 so the current effective-version is "1.6". The effective version
52 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
53 items like the versioned share directory name
54 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.6.
56 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
57 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
58 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
59 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
60 with each micro release during a stable series.
62 ** Thread implementation has changed.
64 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
65 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
66 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
67 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
68 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
71 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
72 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
73 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
74 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
75 the GC. See the manual for details. [XXX - write this.]
77 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
78 in which case "null" threads are used.
80 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
82 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
83 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
84 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
85 in parallel to other sections.
87 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
88 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
89 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
90 serial section (including itself).
92 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
93 inner-most construct is in effect.
95 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
98 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
99 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
100 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
103 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
104 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
105 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
108 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
109 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
110 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
111 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
112 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
113 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
115 ** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
117 We now use a modified version of libltdl that allows us to make
118 improvements to it without having to rely on libtool releases.
120 * Changes to the standalone interpreter
122 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
124 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
125 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
127 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
129 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
130 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
132 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
134 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
137 ** Checking for duplicate bindings in module system
139 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
142 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more duplicates
143 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
151 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
152 has been detected is to
154 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
155 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
156 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
159 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
162 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
164 to your .guile init file.
166 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
168 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
170 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
171 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
172 tried until a binding is selected.
174 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
176 check report an error for bindings with a common name
177 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
178 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
179 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
180 and accept the override
181 first select the first encountered binding (override)
182 last select the last encountered binding (override)
184 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
186 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
187 into an <extended-generic>
188 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
190 The default duplicates handler is:
192 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
194 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
195 behavior) can be installed with:
197 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
199 ** New define-module option: :replace
201 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
204 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
205 for the core binding `format'.
207 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
209 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
210 a prefix to all imported bindings.
213 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
215 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
218 ** Merging generic functions
220 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
221 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
224 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
225 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
226 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
228 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
229 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
230 generic functions sharing a common name:
232 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
233 :use-module (oop goops)
236 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
237 :use-module (oop goops)
240 (define-module (my-module)
241 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
242 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
243 :duplicates merge-generics)
245 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
248 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
249 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
250 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
253 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
254 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
255 functions, extending its ancestors.
257 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
258 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
259 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
261 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
262 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
263 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
264 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
267 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
268 adding it to the ancestor.
270 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
271 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
273 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
275 ** New function: effective-version
277 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
278 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
279 to the distribution" above.
281 ** Futures: future, make-future, future-ref
283 Futures are like promises, but begun immediately in a new thread. See
284 the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
286 ** New syntax: parallel FORM ...
288 Compute the results of FORM ... in parallel (in a separate thread for
289 each form) and return them as multiple values.
291 ** New syntax: letpar ((VAR EXP) ...) BODYFORM ...
293 Like 'let' but evaluates the binding expressions EXP ... in parallel.
295 ** New functions: par-map, par-for-each PROC ARGLIST ...
297 Like 'map' and 'for-each' but evaluate the procedure PROC in a
298 separate thread for each (set of) argument(s). All applications are
299 guaranteed to be completed before the procedure returns.
301 ** New functions: n-par-map, n-par-for-each N PROC ARGLIST ...
303 Like 'par-map' and 'par-for-each' but evaluate the procedure PROC in N
304 threads. This is useful when PROC uses large amounts of resources
305 and/or the argument list(s) is/are long so that one thread per (set
306 of) argument(s) would consume too much system resources. On a
307 dual-CPU system, N = 4 would often be a good choice.
309 ** New function: n-for-each-par-map N S-PROC P-PROC ARGLIST ...
311 Using N parallel processes, apply S-PROC in serial order to each
312 result of applying P-PROC to each set of arguments in the argument
315 Like a composition of 'for-each' and 'n-par-map', but allows S-PROC to
316 start processing while the results of P-PROC are being produced.
318 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
320 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
321 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
322 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
323 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
326 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
327 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
328 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
329 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
331 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
332 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
335 ** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
337 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
339 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
341 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
342 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
344 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
346 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
347 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
350 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
352 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
354 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
356 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
357 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
358 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
361 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
362 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
363 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
366 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
367 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
369 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
371 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
372 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
375 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
376 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
378 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
379 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
380 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
381 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
382 level for the current thread.
384 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
386 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
388 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
389 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
392 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
394 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
396 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
399 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
401 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
404 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
405 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
406 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
408 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
409 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
410 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
411 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
422 ERROR: Numerical overflow
424 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
427 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
429 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
430 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
431 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
442 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
444 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
445 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
446 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
448 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
451 ** pretty-print has more options.
453 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
454 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
455 maximum output width. See its online documentation.
457 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
459 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
460 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
461 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
463 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
465 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
466 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
468 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
470 Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
471 to use r5rs macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done
472 during evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
474 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
476 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
477 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
478 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
479 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
480 without the soft port blocking.
482 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
484 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
485 chapter in the reference manual.
487 ** Deprecated: undefine
489 There is no replacement for undefine.
491 ** SRFI-1 delete equality argument order fixed.
493 In the srfi-1 module delete and delete!, the order of the arguments to
494 the "=" procedure now matches the SRFI-1 specification.
496 * Changes to the C interface
498 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
500 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
501 private or renamed with a more suitable public name. See below for
502 the ones which have been renamed.
504 ** HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H have been removed from public use.
506 HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H removed from public use. These are
507 no longer needed since the older uses of stdint.h and inttypes.h are
508 now handled by configure.in and gen-scmconfig.c.
510 ** USE_DLL_IMPORT is no longer defined publically.
512 gen-scmconfig now uses it to decide what contents to place in the
513 public scmconfig.h header without adding the USE_DLL_IMPORT itself.
515 ** HAVE_LIMITS_H has been removed from public use.
517 gen-scmconfig now just uses HAVE_LIMITS_H to decide whether or not to
518 add a limits.h include in scmconfig.h.
520 ** time.h, sys/time.h, etc. #ifdefery has been removed from public headers.
522 gen-scmconfig now just uses the same logic to decide what time related
523 #includes to add to scmconfig.h.
525 ** HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC has been removed from public use.
527 scmconfig.h now just defines scm_t_timespec.
529 ** HAVE_PTRDIFF has been removed from public use and Guile doesn't
532 Guile now publically defines scm_t_ptrdiff and
533 SCM_SIZEOF_SCM_T_PTRDIFF in scmconfig.h, and all occurrences of
534 ptrdiff_t have been replaced with scm_t_ptrdiff.
536 Guile defines its own type this rather than just relying on ptrdiff_t
537 and SCM_SIZEOF_PTRDIFF_T because Guile actually typedefs long to
538 scm_t_ptrdiff when ptrdiff_t isn't available. A public "typedef long
539 ptrdiff_t" could conflict with other headers.
541 ** HAVE_UINTPTR_T and HAVE_UINTPTR_T have been removed from public use.
543 They are replaced by public definitions of SCM_SIZEOF_UINTPTR_T and
544 SCM_SIZEOF_INTPTR_T. These are defined to 0 if the corresponding type
547 ** The public #define STDC_HEADERS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_STDC_HEADERS.
549 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
551 ** The public #define HAVE_SYS_SELECT has been renamed to
552 SCM_HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H.
554 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
556 ** The public #define HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H has been renamed to
557 SCM_HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H.
559 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
561 ** The public #define HAVE_IEEEFP_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_IEEEFP_H.
563 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
565 ** The public #define HAVE_NAN_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_NAN_H.
567 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
569 ** The public #define HAVE_WINSOCK2_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_WINSOCK2_H.
571 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
573 ** The public #define HAVE_ARRAYS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_ARRAYS.
575 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
577 ** The public #define STACK_GROWS_UP has been renamed to SCM_STACK_GROWS_UP.
579 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
581 ** The public #define USE_PTHREAD_THREADS has been renamed to
582 SCM_USE_PTHREAD_THREADS.
584 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
586 ** The public #define USE_NULL_THREADS has been renamed to
587 SCM_USE_NULL_THREADS.
589 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
591 ** The public #define USE_COOP_THREADS has been renamed to
592 SCM_USE_COOP_THREADS.
594 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
596 ** SCM_C_INLINE is publically defined if possible.
598 If the platform has a way to define inline functions, SCM_C_INLINE
599 will be defined to that text. Otherwise it will be undefined. This
600 is a little bit different than autoconf's normal handling of the
601 inline define via AC_C_INLINE.
603 ** Guile now publically defines some basic type infrastructure.
608 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_CHAR
610 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_SHORT
612 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG
614 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_INT
615 SCM_SIZEOF_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
616 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
630 and when either of these are defined to 1, optionally defines
641 ** The preprocessor define USE_THREADS has been deprecated.
643 Going forward, assume that the thread API is always present.
645 ** The preprocessor define GUILE_ISELECT has been deprecated.
647 Going forward, assume that scm_internal_select is always present.
649 ** The preprocessor define READER_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
651 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
652 READER_EXTENSIONS are always present.
654 ** The preprocessor define DEBUG_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
656 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
657 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS are always present.
659 ** The preprocessor define DYNAMIC_LINKING has been deprecated.
661 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
662 DYNAMIC_LINKING are always present.
664 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
666 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
667 programs. (Do not use.)
669 ** New function: scm_effective_version
671 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
672 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
673 to the distribution" above.
675 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
677 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
678 arguments are now passed directly:
680 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
682 This is an incompatible change.
684 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
686 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
687 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
688 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
690 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
691 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
693 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
695 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
697 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
698 function in the init section.
700 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
702 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
704 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
706 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
707 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
708 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
710 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
712 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
713 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
714 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
715 stays roughly constant.
717 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
718 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
719 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
720 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
721 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
724 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
725 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
726 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
727 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
729 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
731 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
733 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
735 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
736 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
737 initializes a new cell (see below).
739 ** New functions for memory management
741 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
742 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
743 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
744 cause aborts in long running programs.
746 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
747 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
749 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
750 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
751 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
752 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
753 details and for upgrading instructions.
755 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
756 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
757 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
759 ** New function: scm_str2string
761 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
764 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
766 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
767 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
768 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
769 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
770 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
772 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
773 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
774 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
776 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
777 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
779 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
781 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
782 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
783 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
784 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
786 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
788 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
791 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
793 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
795 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
797 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or, probably better, to use r5rs
798 macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done during
799 evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
801 ** Removed from scm_root_state: def_inp, def_outp, def_errp, together
802 with corresponding macros scm_def_inp, scm_def_outp and scm_def_errp.
803 These were undocumented and unused copies of the standard ports at the
804 time that Guile was initialised. Normally the current ports should be
805 used instead, obtained from scm_current_input_port () etc. If an
806 application needs to retain earlier ports, it should save them in a
807 gc-protected location.
809 ** Removed compile time option MEMOIZE_LOCALS
811 Now, caching of local variable positions during memoization is mandatory.
812 However, the option to disable the caching has most probably not been used
815 ** Removed compile time option SCM_RECKLESS
817 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
818 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
820 ** Removed compile time option SCM_CAUTIOUS
822 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
823 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
825 ** Deprecated configure flags USE_THREADS and GUILE_ISELECT
827 Previously, when the C preprocessor macro USE_THREADS was defined,
828 libguile included a thread API. This API is now always included, even
829 when threads are not really supported. Thus, you don't need to test
832 Analogously, GUILE_ISELECT was defined when the function
833 scm_internal_select was provided by Guile. This function is now
834 always defined, and GUILE_ISELECT with it.
836 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
838 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
839 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
841 ** Deprecated definitions of error strings: scm_s_expression, scm_s_test,
842 scm_s_body, scm_s_bindings, scm_s_variable, scm_s_clauses, scm_s_formals
844 These error message strings were used to issue syntax error messages by
845 guile's evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code.
847 ** Deprecated helper macros for evaluation and application: SCM_EVALIM2,
848 SCM_EVALIM, SCM_XEVAL, SCM_XEVALCAR
850 These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
851 that they have been used by user code.
853 ** Deprecated macros for iloc handling: SCM_ILOC00, SCM_IDINC, SCM_IDSTMSK
855 These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
856 that they have been used by user code.
858 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify,
859 scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify,
860 scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify, scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell,
861 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH,
862 SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY,
863 SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
864 scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL,
865 SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL,
866 SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS,
867 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
868 scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, scm_eval2,
869 root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP,
870 scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring,
871 sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig,
872 scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big,
873 scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, SCM_SETCHARS,
874 SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
875 SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS,
876 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern,
877 scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
878 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
879 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
880 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
881 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
882 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
883 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
884 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
885 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
886 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
887 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
888 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable
890 Changes since Guile 1.4:
892 * Changes to the distribution
894 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
896 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
898 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
899 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
900 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
901 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
902 indicate major changes in Guile.
904 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
905 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
906 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
907 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
909 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
910 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
911 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
912 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
913 micro version number.
915 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
917 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
919 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
920 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
922 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
924 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
925 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
926 See INSTALL and README for more information.
928 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
930 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
931 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
932 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
935 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
937 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
940 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
942 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
943 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
945 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
947 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
948 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
951 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
953 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
956 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
959 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
961 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
963 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
964 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
965 open-output-string, get-output-string.
967 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
969 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
971 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
974 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
976 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
978 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
980 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
981 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
982 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
984 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
986 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
988 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
989 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
998 See README there for more info.
1000 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1001 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1004 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1006 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1008 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1010 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1011 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1012 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1014 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1016 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1017 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1018 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1020 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1021 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1023 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1026 (oop goops describe)
1028 (oop goops active-slot)
1029 (oop goops composite-slot)
1031 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1032 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1033 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1035 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1037 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1038 in the default environment:
1040 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1041 %read-line write-line
1043 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1044 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1046 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1048 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1051 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1052 can be used for similar functionality.
1054 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1056 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1057 it defines two procedures:
1059 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1061 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1062 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1063 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1066 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1068 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1069 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1070 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1071 write large strings.
1073 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1075 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1076 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1078 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1080 for complete documentation.
1082 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1084 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1085 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1086 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1087 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1089 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1090 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1094 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1095 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1096 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1099 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1102 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1103 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1105 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1106 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1109 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1112 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1114 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1116 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1118 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1120 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1121 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1122 Scheme programs easier.
1124 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1125 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1126 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1127 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1128 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1131 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1132 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1134 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1137 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1139 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1140 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1141 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1144 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1146 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1148 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1149 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1150 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1151 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1152 was also ASCII, for example.
1154 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1156 tag - no replacement.
1157 fseek - replaced by seek.
1158 list* - replaced by cons*.
1160 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1164 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1165 (define m (make-safe-module))
1166 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1167 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1168 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1170 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1172 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1173 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1174 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1176 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1178 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1179 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1180 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1181 from the issues related to the module system.
1183 *** New function: load-extension
1185 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1187 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1189 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1190 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1191 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1193 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1195 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1196 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1197 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1198 support dynamic linking).
1200 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1202 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1203 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1204 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1205 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1208 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1209 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1210 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1211 library and initialize it explicitely.
1213 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1214 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1216 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1218 (define-module (foo bar))
1220 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1222 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1224 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1225 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1227 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1228 (null-environment 5)
1229 (interaction-environment)
1235 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1237 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1238 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1239 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1240 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1242 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1243 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1244 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1245 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1246 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1247 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1248 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1249 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1250 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1251 one eval to the next.
1253 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1254 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1255 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1256 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1257 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1259 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1260 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1261 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1262 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1263 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1264 used in a lexical environment.
1266 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1267 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1268 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1269 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1270 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1271 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1273 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1275 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1276 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1277 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1278 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1279 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1281 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1282 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1283 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1285 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1286 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1288 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1289 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1290 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1292 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1293 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1295 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1296 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1297 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1298 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1301 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1302 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1303 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1304 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1306 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1307 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1308 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1310 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1311 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1312 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1313 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1314 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1316 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1318 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1319 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1320 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1322 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1323 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1324 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1326 See manual for more info.
1328 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1330 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1331 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1332 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1334 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1336 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1337 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1338 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1340 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1341 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1342 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1343 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1345 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1347 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1348 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1350 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1351 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1352 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1353 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1354 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1357 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1358 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1359 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1360 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1361 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1362 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1364 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1365 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1366 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1367 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1368 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1370 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1371 objects are usually permanent.
1373 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1374 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1376 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1378 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1379 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1382 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1386 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1391 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1393 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1394 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1395 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1396 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1398 ** New function `make-object-property'
1400 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1401 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1405 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1406 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1410 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1411 source properties eventually.
1413 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1415 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1416 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1417 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1419 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1420 will be removed in the next release.
1422 ** New define-module option: pure
1424 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1429 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1432 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1434 Export names NAME1 ...
1436 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1437 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1441 (define-module (foo)
1443 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1446 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1451 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1453 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1455 ** New function: port? X
1457 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1458 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1460 ** New function: file-port?
1462 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1464 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1466 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1467 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1468 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1469 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1470 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1472 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1474 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1475 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1476 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1477 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1478 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1481 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1483 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1484 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1485 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1486 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1489 ** New function: crypt password salt
1491 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1494 ** New function: chroot path
1496 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1498 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1500 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1503 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1505 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1507 ** New function: getpass prompt
1509 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1512 ** New function: flock file operation
1514 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1516 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1518 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1521 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1523 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1524 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1525 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1526 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1527 of the temporary file.
1529 ** New function: open-input-string string
1531 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1532 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1533 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1535 ** New function: open-output-string
1537 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1538 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1540 ** New function: get-output-string
1542 Return the contents of an output string port.
1544 ** New function: identity
1546 Return the argument.
1548 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1549 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1551 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1553 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1554 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1555 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1558 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1559 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1561 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1563 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1564 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1565 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1568 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1569 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1570 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1574 Use `identity' instead.
1580 ** Deprecated: return-it
1584 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1586 Use `string-length' instead.
1588 ** Deprecated: flags
1590 Use `logior' instead.
1592 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1594 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1595 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1596 port-for-each is more flexible.
1598 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1599 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1600 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1602 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1604 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1606 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1608 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1610 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1612 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1613 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1615 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1616 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1618 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1619 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1621 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1623 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1624 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1626 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1627 Use module system operations for all variables.
1629 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1631 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1634 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1636 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1637 The following bugs have been fixed:
1639 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1640 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1643 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1644 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1645 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1647 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1648 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1650 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1651 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1654 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1655 The expansion used to be like so:
1657 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1659 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1661 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1663 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1664 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1666 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1668 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1669 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1670 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1674 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1675 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1677 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1682 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1683 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1685 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1686 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1687 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1689 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1692 * Changes to the C interface
1694 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1696 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1697 with "_t". What a concept.
1699 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1701 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1703 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1707 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1708 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1710 *** C Functions removed
1712 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1713 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1714 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1715 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1716 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1717 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1718 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1720 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1722 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1724 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1726 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1728 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1729 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1731 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1733 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1736 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1738 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1740 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1742 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments.
1746 scm_call_1 (proc, arg1);
1748 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1750 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list
1755 scm_apply_1 (proc, arg1, args);
1757 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1759 Create a list of the given number of elements.
1761 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1763 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1764 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1766 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1768 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1770 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1771 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1772 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1774 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1776 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1778 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1779 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1780 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
1783 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1785 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
1787 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
1788 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
1790 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
1792 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
1793 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
1794 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
1795 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
1797 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
1798 scm_primitive_property_ref
1799 scm_primitive_property_set_x
1800 scm_primitive_property_del_x
1802 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
1803 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
1805 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
1807 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
1808 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
1809 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
1810 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
1812 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
1814 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
1815 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
1816 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
1817 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
1818 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
1819 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
1820 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
1822 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
1823 scm_remember_upto_here
1825 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
1827 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
1829 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
1830 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
1832 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
1834 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
1836 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
1838 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
1840 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
1842 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
1843 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
1844 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
1845 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
1846 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
1847 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
1849 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
1851 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1853 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
1854 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1855 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
1857 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
1859 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
1860 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1861 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
1863 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
1865 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
1866 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
1869 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
1872 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
1873 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1876 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1878 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
1880 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
1882 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1884 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
1886 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
1888 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
1889 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
1890 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
1891 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1892 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
1893 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
1894 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
1895 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1896 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
1897 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
1898 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
1899 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
1900 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
1901 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
1902 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
1904 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
1905 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
1906 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
1907 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
1908 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
1909 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
1910 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
1911 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
1912 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1913 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
1914 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
1915 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
1916 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
1917 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
1918 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
1919 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1920 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1921 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
1922 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
1923 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
1924 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
1925 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
1926 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
1927 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
1928 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
1929 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
1930 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
1931 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
1932 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
1934 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
1936 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
1938 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
1939 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
1941 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
1943 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
1945 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
1947 Use scm_string_hash instead.
1949 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
1951 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
1953 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
1955 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
1957 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
1960 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
1961 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
1963 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
1965 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
1967 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
1969 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
1971 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
1973 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
1975 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
1977 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
1980 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
1982 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
1984 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
1986 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
1987 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
1989 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
1990 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
1992 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
1994 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
1995 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
1996 scm_module_define, scm_define.
1998 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2000 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2002 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2003 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2005 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2006 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2007 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2008 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2010 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2011 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2012 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2014 Use the new ones from above instead.
2016 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2018 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2019 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2020 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2022 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2023 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2025 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2026 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2029 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2030 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2032 Use the new functions instead.
2034 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2037 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2039 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2041 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2044 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2046 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2049 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2051 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2054 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2055 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2056 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2058 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2060 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2061 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2063 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2064 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2065 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2066 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2069 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2071 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2072 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2073 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2074 inexact for an exact.
2076 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2077 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2078 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2081 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2082 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2083 accept an inexact argument.
2085 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2086 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2088 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2091 ** New number validation macros:
2092 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2096 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2098 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2099 scm_unprotect_object.
2101 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2103 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2105 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2108 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2110 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2114 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2116 * Changes to the distribution
2118 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2120 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2121 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2122 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2123 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2124 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2125 obtain these programs.
2126 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2127 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2129 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2130 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2131 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2132 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2133 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2135 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2136 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2137 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2138 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2142 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2145 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2146 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2147 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2148 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2150 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2152 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2154 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2155 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2157 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2158 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2160 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2161 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2163 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2164 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2165 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2166 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2168 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2170 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2174 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2175 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2177 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2179 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2180 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2182 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2183 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2184 number of objects of that kind.
2186 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2188 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2189 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2190 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2191 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2192 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2194 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2196 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2198 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2200 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2203 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2205 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2207 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2209 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2211 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2213 ** New command line option --debug
2215 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2217 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2219 ** New help facility
2221 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2222 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2223 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2224 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2225 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2226 (help) gives this text
2228 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2229 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2231 Examples: (help help)
2233 (help "output-string")
2235 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2237 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2239 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2240 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2243 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2244 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2245 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2248 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2249 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2250 use absolute filenames when possible.
2252 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2253 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2254 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2257 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2259 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2260 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2261 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2262 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2264 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2266 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2268 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2269 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2270 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2272 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2273 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2274 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2276 (read-enable 'positions)
2277 (debug-enable 'debug)
2279 ** Backtraces in scripts
2281 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2285 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2287 at the top of the script.
2289 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2290 The second enables backtraces.)
2292 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2294 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2295 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2296 substantially faster than before.
2298 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2299 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2301 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2302 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2304 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2306 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2307 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2308 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2310 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2311 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2312 when this hook is run in the future.
2314 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2315 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2317 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2319 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2320 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2323 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2324 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2325 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2327 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2328 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2330 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2331 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2333 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2334 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2335 in order not to need further allocation.)
2337 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2340 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2341 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2342 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2343 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2345 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2347 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2350 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2352 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2355 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2356 GC in percent of total heap size
2359 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2360 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2362 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2364 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2365 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2367 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2369 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2370 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2372 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2374 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2375 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2379 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2380 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2382 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2384 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2386 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2388 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2390 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2392 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2393 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2395 (simple-format port message . args)
2396 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2397 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2398 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2399 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2400 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2401 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2402 Does not add a trailing newline."
2404 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2406 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2407 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2409 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2410 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2412 ** Deprecated: list*
2414 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2416 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2418 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2419 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2421 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2422 is returned as result.
2424 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2426 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2428 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2430 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2431 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2434 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2436 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2438 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2439 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2441 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2443 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2445 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2447 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2449 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2451 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2453 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2455 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2456 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2457 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2459 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2462 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2464 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2465 the readability of argument checking.
2467 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2469 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2471 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2473 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2474 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2475 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2476 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2477 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2478 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2479 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2481 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2483 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2485 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2486 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2488 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2490 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2491 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2494 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2496 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2497 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2498 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2500 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2501 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2502 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2504 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2505 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2506 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2507 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2508 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2509 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2510 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2512 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2513 scm_end_input (object);
2514 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2515 ptob->flush (object);
2517 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2518 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2521 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2523 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2525 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2526 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2527 removed in a future version.
2529 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2531 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2532 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2533 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2534 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2536 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2537 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2539 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2542 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2544 in your configure.in.
2546 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2551 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2557 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2559 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2563 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2564 (define make-message string-append)
2566 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2568 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2572 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2577 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2581 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2583 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2584 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2586 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2588 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2589 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2590 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2591 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2592 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2593 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2595 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2596 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2597 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2599 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2600 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2601 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2604 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2605 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2606 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2607 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2608 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2610 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2611 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2612 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2613 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2614 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2615 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2616 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2618 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2620 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2621 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2622 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2624 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2625 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2626 KEY in the calling thread.
2628 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2629 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2630 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2631 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2632 associated with the key.
2634 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2636 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2637 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2639 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2641 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2642 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2643 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2645 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2647 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2648 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2650 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2652 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2654 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2655 returned is undefined.
2657 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2658 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2659 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2661 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2662 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2663 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2665 ** New C level GC hooks
2667 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2669 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2672 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2673 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2674 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2676 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2677 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2678 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2680 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2681 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2684 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2686 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2687 allocation parameters
2689 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2690 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2691 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2695 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2696 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2697 scm_default_max_segment_size
2699 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2701 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2702 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2704 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2706 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2707 object and count on the object being protected until
2708 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2710 The functions also have better time complexity.
2712 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2713 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2714 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2715 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2716 are no longer needed.
2718 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2720 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2721 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2722 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2723 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2725 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2727 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2729 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2731 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2732 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2733 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2734 until this issue has been settled.
2736 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2738 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2740 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2743 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2745 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2747 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2748 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2749 descriptors were checked.
2751 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2752 atomically written to a pipe.
2754 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2755 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2756 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2757 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2758 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2759 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2760 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2763 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2764 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2765 is changed without calling tzset.
2767 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2769 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2770 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2771 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2773 (define write-network-long
2774 (lambda (value port)
2775 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2776 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2777 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2779 (define read-network-long
2781 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2782 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
2783 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
2785 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
2786 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
2788 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
2789 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
2790 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
2791 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
2793 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
2794 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
2795 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
2796 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
2800 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
2802 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2806 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
2807 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
2808 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
2814 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
2815 for a description of available commands.
2817 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
2818 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
2819 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
2821 (debug-enable 'backwards)
2823 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
2824 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
2826 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
2828 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
2830 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
2831 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
2832 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
2833 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
2834 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
2835 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
2838 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
2840 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
2841 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
2842 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
2843 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
2845 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
2846 the file and should not be affected by this change.
2848 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
2850 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2852 ** Readline support has changed again.
2854 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
2855 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
2856 to activate readline is now
2858 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
2861 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
2863 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
2864 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
2865 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
2868 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
2869 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
2870 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
2873 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
2874 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
2875 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
2876 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
2877 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
2878 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
2880 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
2881 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
2883 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
2885 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
2886 object it receives is the same string passed to
2887 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
2888 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
2889 string, not the suffix.
2891 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
2892 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
2893 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
2895 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
2897 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
2898 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
2899 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
2900 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
2903 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2905 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
2907 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
2908 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
2909 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
2910 appear from left to right.
2912 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
2915 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
2917 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
2918 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
2920 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2924 *** New function: hook? OBJ
2926 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
2928 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
2930 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
2931 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
2932 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
2934 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
2936 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
2938 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
2940 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
2943 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
2945 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
2946 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
2947 mentioning it here anyway.
2949 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
2951 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
2952 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
2953 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
2954 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
2957 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
2959 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
2961 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
2963 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
2964 otherwise return #f.
2966 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
2968 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
2969 returned by `opendir'.
2971 ** New function: using-readline?
2973 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
2975 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2977 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
2978 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2980 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2982 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2984 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
2985 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
2986 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2988 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
2990 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
2991 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
2993 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
2995 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
2996 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
2997 documentation slots are not yet used.
2999 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3001 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3002 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3003 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3008 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3009 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3010 (string-append x y))
3012 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3013 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3015 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3016 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3017 be made in a clean way.]
3019 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3021 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3023 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3025 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3026 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3028 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3030 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3032 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3034 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3036 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3037 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3038 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3039 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3042 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3044 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3046 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3048 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3050 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3051 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3053 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3055 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3057 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3059 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3061 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3062 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3063 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3064 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3065 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3066 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3068 This should not make any difference for most users.
3070 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3072 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3073 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3075 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3077 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3078 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3079 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3080 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3081 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3083 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3085 It is now replaced by:
3087 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3089 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3090 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3092 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3094 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3095 This might change when we get the new module system.
3097 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3101 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3103 * Changes to mailing lists
3105 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3107 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3110 * Changes to the distribution
3112 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3114 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3115 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3116 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3117 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3118 you explicitly specify it.
3120 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3121 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3122 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3123 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3124 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3127 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3128 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3129 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3130 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3132 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3133 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3134 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3137 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3139 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3142 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3144 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3146 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3147 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3148 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3149 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3151 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3152 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3155 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3157 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3158 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3159 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3160 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3161 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3162 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3163 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3164 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3176 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3177 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3178 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3179 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3180 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3185 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3186 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3194 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3199 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3200 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3203 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3204 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3205 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3206 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3208 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3210 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3212 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3213 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3215 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3217 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3219 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3220 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3222 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3225 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3227 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3229 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3231 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3233 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3235 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3237 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3238 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3239 when the hook was created.
3241 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3242 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3243 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3244 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3245 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3246 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3247 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3248 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3249 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3251 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3252 the dlopen family of functions.
3254 ** New function `provided?'
3256 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3257 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3258 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3259 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3261 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3263 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3264 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3265 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3266 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3269 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3270 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3271 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3272 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3274 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3275 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3276 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3279 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3280 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3281 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3282 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3283 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3284 but with the flag set.
3286 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3288 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3289 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3291 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3292 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3293 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3294 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3295 available Scheme format implementations.
3297 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3298 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3299 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3300 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3301 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3302 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3303 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3304 output is to the current error port if available by the
3305 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3308 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3309 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3310 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3311 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3312 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3313 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3314 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3315 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3317 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3318 be executed at a time.
3321 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3323 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3324 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3325 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3327 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3328 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3329 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3330 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3331 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3332 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3333 general form of a directive is:
3335 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3337 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3339 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3341 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3342 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3343 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3346 Any (print as `display' does).
3350 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3354 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3358 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3364 print number sign always.
3367 print comma separated.
3369 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3375 print number sign always.
3378 print comma separated.
3380 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3386 print number sign always.
3389 print comma separated.
3391 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3397 print number sign always.
3400 print comma separated.
3402 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3407 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3411 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3414 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3417 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3420 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3425 prints `y' and `ies'.
3428 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3431 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3436 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3440 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3443 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3444 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3446 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3449 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3450 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3452 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3455 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3457 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3459 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3462 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3464 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3466 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3469 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3472 The sign appears before the padding.
3480 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3482 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3487 print N page separators.
3497 newline is ignored, white space left.
3500 newline is left, white space ignored.
3505 relative tabulation.
3511 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3513 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3516 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3518 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3521 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3524 converts by `string-upcase'.
3527 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3529 jumps N arguments forward.
3532 jumps 1 argument backward.
3535 jumps N arguments backward.
3538 jumps to the 0th argument.
3541 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3543 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3544 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3546 take argument from N.
3549 true test conditional.
3552 if-else-then conditional.
3558 default clause follows.
3561 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3563 at most N iterations.
3566 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3569 args from the rest of arguments.
3572 args from the rest args (lists).
3583 aborts if N <= M <= K
3585 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3588 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3591 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3597 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3599 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3601 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3602 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3603 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3604 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3605 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3606 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3610 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3614 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3620 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3623 Print a `#\space' character
3625 print N `#\space' characters.
3628 Print a `#\tab' character
3630 print N `#\tab' characters.
3633 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3634 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3635 must be a positive decimal number.
3638 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3639 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3640 be processed by `read'.
3643 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3644 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3645 be processed by `read'.
3648 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3651 prints format version.
3654 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3655 and format it accordingly.
3657 *** Configuration Variables
3659 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3660 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3661 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3662 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3665 format:symbol-case-conv
3666 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3667 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3668 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3669 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3670 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3672 format:iobj-case-conv
3673 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3674 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3677 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3680 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3686 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3687 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3688 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3689 `format' padding style.
3692 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3693 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3694 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3695 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3699 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3700 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3701 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3704 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3705 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3706 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3707 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3708 parameters or modifiers)).
3711 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3713 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3715 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3716 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3718 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3719 string-downcase! functions.
3721 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3722 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3724 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3727 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3730 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3731 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3733 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3735 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3736 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3738 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3739 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3740 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3741 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3742 would if STRING were input.
3744 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3746 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3747 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3748 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3749 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3752 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3754 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3755 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3758 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3760 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3761 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3763 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3764 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3766 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3767 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3768 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3769 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3771 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3772 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3774 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3775 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3776 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3778 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3779 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3781 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
3782 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
3783 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
3784 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
3785 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
3787 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
3788 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
3789 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
3790 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
3791 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
3792 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
3794 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
3795 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
3796 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
3799 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
3800 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
3801 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
3802 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
3803 the following grammar:
3804 ((apples (single-char #\a))
3805 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
3806 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
3807 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
3808 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
3809 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
3810 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
3811 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
3812 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
3813 last option in its combination)
3815 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
3816 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
3817 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
3818 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
3820 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
3821 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
3822 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
3824 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3825 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3826 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
3828 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
3829 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
3830 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
3831 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
3832 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
3833 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
3834 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
3835 ordinary argument strings.
3837 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
3838 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
3839 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
3840 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
3842 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
3843 as a list, associated with the empty list.
3845 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
3846 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
3847 - a required option is omitted
3848 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
3849 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
3850 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
3851 - an option predicate fails
3856 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
3859 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
3860 (verbose (required? #f)
3863 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
3864 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
3865 (predicate ,string?))))
3867 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
3868 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3870 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3871 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
3872 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
3873 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
3876 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
3878 It will be removed in a few releases.
3880 ** New syntax: lambda*
3881 ** New syntax: define*
3882 ** New syntax: define*-public
3883 ** New syntax: defmacro*
3884 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
3885 Guile now supports optional arguments.
3887 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
3888 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
3889 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
3890 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
3891 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
3893 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
3894 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
3895 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
3897 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
3899 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
3900 and examples for `lambda*':
3903 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
3905 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
3906 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
3907 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
3908 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
3909 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
3910 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
3911 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
3912 can be checked with the bound? macro.
3914 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
3916 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
3917 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
3918 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
3919 are given as keywords are bound to values.
3921 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
3922 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
3923 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
3924 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
3925 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
3926 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
3927 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
3928 and until the procedure is called.
3930 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
3932 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
3933 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
3934 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
3935 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
3936 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
3937 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
3938 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
3939 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
3940 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
3941 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
3943 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
3944 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
3945 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
3946 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
3949 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
3951 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
3952 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
3953 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
3954 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
3956 ** New syntax: and-let*
3957 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
3959 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
3960 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
3961 (<variable> <expression>)
3964 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
3965 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
3966 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
3969 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
3970 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
3971 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
3972 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
3973 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
3974 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
3975 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
3977 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
3978 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
3979 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
3980 shadow earlier bindings.
3982 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
3984 ** New sorting functions
3986 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
3987 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
3988 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
3989 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
3991 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
3992 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
3995 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3996 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
3997 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
3999 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4000 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4001 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4002 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4004 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4005 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4006 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4007 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4008 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4011 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4012 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4013 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4014 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4015 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4016 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4018 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4019 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4020 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4022 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4023 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4024 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4027 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4028 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4029 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4031 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4032 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4034 ** New built-in random number support
4036 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4037 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4038 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4039 returned have a uniform distribution.
4041 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4042 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4043 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4044 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4045 effect of the `random' operation.
4047 *** New variable: *random-state*
4048 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4049 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4050 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4051 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4052 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4055 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4056 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4057 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4058 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4059 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4061 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4062 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4063 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4064 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4065 initialized using SEED.
4067 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4068 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4069 range between 0 and 1.
4071 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4072 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4073 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4074 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4075 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4076 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4077 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4079 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4080 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4081 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4082 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4083 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4084 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4086 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4087 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4088 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4089 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4091 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4092 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4093 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4094 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4096 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4097 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4098 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4100 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4102 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4105 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4106 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4109 ** New function: make-guardian
4110 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4111 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4112 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4113 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4114 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4116 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4117 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4118 one object if at all.
4120 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4121 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4122 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4124 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4125 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4126 read again in last-in first-out order.
4128 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4129 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4131 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4133 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4134 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4135 file position is used.
4137 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4138 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4139 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4141 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4142 redefined using seek.
4144 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4145 size is not supplied.
4147 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4148 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4150 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4151 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4153 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4155 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4156 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4157 and returns the contents as a single string.
4159 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4160 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4161 lists in serial order.
4163 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4164 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4165 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4167 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4168 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4169 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4170 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4172 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4173 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4174 and #f if an error occured.
4176 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4178 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4179 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4180 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4181 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4183 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4185 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4188 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4190 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4193 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4197 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4198 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4200 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4201 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4205 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4207 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4209 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4210 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4212 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4214 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4215 might change when we get the new module system.
4217 ** The smob interface
4219 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4220 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4222 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4224 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4228 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4229 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4230 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4231 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4232 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4233 will be freed by the default free function.
4235 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4236 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4237 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4238 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4240 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4241 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4242 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4243 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4245 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4247 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4248 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4252 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4253 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4254 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4256 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4257 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4258 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4259 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4261 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4262 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4263 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4265 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4266 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4267 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4268 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4270 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4271 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4272 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4274 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4278 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4280 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4281 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4282 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4284 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4285 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4286 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4288 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4289 a string port's buffer.
4291 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4292 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4293 function pointers which together define the current random number
4294 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4295 number library functions.
4297 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4300 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4301 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4304 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4305 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4307 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4308 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4310 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4311 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4314 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4315 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4316 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4317 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4319 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4320 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4321 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4322 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4323 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4324 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4325 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4327 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4328 by libguile and the application.
4330 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4331 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4332 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4333 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4335 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4336 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4338 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4339 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4340 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4342 ** Random number library functions
4343 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4344 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4345 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4347 The default random state is stored in:
4349 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4350 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4351 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4356 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4358 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4359 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4360 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4361 isn't a random state.
4363 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4364 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4366 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4367 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4368 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4369 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4371 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4372 Return 32 random bits.
4374 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4375 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4377 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4378 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4380 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4381 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4383 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4384 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4386 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4387 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4388 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4392 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4394 * Changes to the distribution
4396 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4397 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4398 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4401 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4402 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4403 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4405 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4406 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4407 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4408 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4411 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4412 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4413 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4415 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4417 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4419 *** Function: batch-mode?
4421 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4424 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4426 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4427 case has not been implemented.
4429 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4430 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4431 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4434 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4435 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4437 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4439 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4441 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4443 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4444 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4447 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4448 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4449 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4450 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4453 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4455 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4456 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4457 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4458 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4459 find those libraries.
4461 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4462 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4465 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4467 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4468 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4469 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4470 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4472 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4473 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4474 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4478 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4480 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4481 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4482 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4485 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4486 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4487 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4488 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4490 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4491 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4494 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4495 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4496 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4497 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4498 compiler where to find the libraries.
4500 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4501 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4502 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4504 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4505 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4506 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4507 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4508 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4512 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4514 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4515 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4516 internationalization support.
4518 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4519 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4520 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4521 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4522 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4524 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4525 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4526 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4527 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4528 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4530 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4531 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4532 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4533 any GNU mirror site.
4535 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4537 ** New function: add-history STRING
4538 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4539 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4540 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4542 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4544 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4545 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4546 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4549 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4550 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4551 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4553 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4555 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4558 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4559 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4562 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4563 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4564 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4565 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4566 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4567 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4569 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4570 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4571 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4572 of the form mentioned above.
4574 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4575 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4576 returned in the special `rest' list.
4578 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4579 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4581 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4583 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4585 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4587 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4588 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4589 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4590 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4591 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4592 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4593 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4594 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4597 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4599 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4601 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4602 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4605 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4606 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4607 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4611 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4612 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4613 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4614 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4615 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4616 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4617 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4618 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4621 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4623 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4624 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4625 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4627 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4629 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4630 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4632 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4633 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4634 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4636 Why do we have this function?
4637 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4638 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4639 primitive, and display it differently, and
4640 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4641 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4644 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4645 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4648 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4649 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4650 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4651 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4653 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4654 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4657 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4658 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4660 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4662 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4663 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4664 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4665 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4666 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4667 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4668 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4671 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4673 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4674 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4676 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4677 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4678 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4679 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4680 properly continue the print chain.
4682 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4683 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4684 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4685 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4686 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4687 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4688 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4689 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4691 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4692 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4693 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4694 safest to not check for these pairs.
4696 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4697 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4698 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4699 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4701 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4703 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4704 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4706 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4708 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4710 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4711 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4712 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4714 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4715 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4716 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4718 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4719 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4720 the following functions and macros:
4722 Function: make-fluid
4724 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4725 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4726 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4727 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4728 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4730 Function: fluid? OBJ
4732 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4734 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4735 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4737 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4738 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4740 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4742 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4743 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4744 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4745 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4746 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4747 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4748 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4750 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4752 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4753 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4754 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4755 should evaluate to a fluid.
4757 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4759 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4760 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4761 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4762 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4763 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4765 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4768 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4770 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4772 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4774 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4777 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4778 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4779 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4780 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4781 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
4784 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
4785 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
4786 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
4788 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
4789 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
4790 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
4792 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
4793 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
4794 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4795 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
4797 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
4798 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
4799 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4800 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
4802 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
4803 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
4804 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
4805 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
4807 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
4808 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
4809 their revealed counts set to zero.
4811 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4812 Returns an integer file descriptor.
4814 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4815 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
4817 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4818 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
4820 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4821 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
4822 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
4824 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
4825 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
4826 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
4828 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
4829 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
4830 default environment inherited by child processes.
4832 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
4833 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
4834 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
4836 The return value is unspecified.
4838 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
4839 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
4840 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
4841 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
4842 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
4844 The return value is unspecified.
4846 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
4847 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
4855 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
4856 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
4859 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
4862 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
4863 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
4864 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
4866 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
4867 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
4868 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
4869 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
4872 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
4873 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
4875 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
4876 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
4877 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
4878 the `environ' procedure.
4880 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
4881 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
4884 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
4885 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
4887 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
4888 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
4889 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
4890 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
4892 *** procedure: times
4893 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
4894 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
4895 return a selected component:
4898 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
4902 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
4905 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
4909 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
4910 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
4914 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
4915 terminated child processes.
4917 ** Removed: list-length
4918 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
4919 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
4921 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
4923 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
4925 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
4927 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
4928 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
4929 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
4930 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
4932 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
4933 extra complexity it introduces.
4935 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
4936 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
4938 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
4939 variable to any non-empty value.
4941 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
4942 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
4944 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4946 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
4947 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
4949 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
4951 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
4952 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
4954 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
4956 ** vector handling routines
4958 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
4959 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
4960 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
4961 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
4962 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
4964 ** pair and list routines
4966 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
4969 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
4971 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
4974 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4976 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
4978 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
4979 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
4980 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
4981 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
4982 site-specific initialization code.
4984 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
4985 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
4986 initialization processes.
4988 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
4989 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
4990 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
4991 initialized properly.
4993 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
4994 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
4995 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
4997 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
4998 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
4999 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5000 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5001 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5003 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5005 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5006 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5007 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5008 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5009 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5011 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5012 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5013 which look like this:
5016 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5018 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5019 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5022 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5023 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5026 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5028 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5029 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5030 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5032 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5033 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5034 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5035 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5036 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5038 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5039 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5041 int (*free) (SCM port);
5042 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5043 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5044 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5048 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5049 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5050 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5052 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5055 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5056 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5057 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5059 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5060 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5061 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5064 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5068 struct timeval *timeout);
5070 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5071 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5072 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5073 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5074 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5075 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5077 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5078 scm_catch_body_t body,
5080 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5083 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5084 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5085 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5086 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5087 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5088 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5090 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5092 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5095 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5096 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5097 spawning threads from application C code.
5099 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5100 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5101 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5102 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5103 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5104 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5106 ** Removed functions:
5108 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5109 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5111 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5113 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5114 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5116 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5118 ** mbstrings are now removed
5120 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5121 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5123 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5125 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5126 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5127 their new names and arguments:
5129 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5130 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5131 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5132 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5135 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5137 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5139 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5142 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5144 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5145 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5146 pass a #f arg to catch.
5148 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5150 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5151 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5154 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5155 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5156 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5157 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5158 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5159 reclaim its storage.
5161 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5162 worrying that some other function you call will call
5163 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5164 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5165 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5166 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5169 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5171 * Changes to the distribution
5173 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5174 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5177 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5178 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5180 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5181 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5183 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5185 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5186 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5187 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5189 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5191 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5192 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5193 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5194 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5195 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5196 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5198 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5199 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5200 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5203 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5204 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5205 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5206 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5208 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5209 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5210 libraries to your link command:
5212 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5213 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5214 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5215 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5217 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5218 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5219 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5221 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5223 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5224 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5227 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5229 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5230 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5231 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5232 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5233 searched is system dependent.
5235 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5237 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5239 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5241 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5242 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5244 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5246 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5247 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5248 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5249 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5250 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5253 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5255 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5256 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5257 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5258 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5259 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5261 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5263 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5264 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5266 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5268 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5269 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5270 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5273 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5275 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5276 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5277 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5278 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5280 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5281 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5283 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5285 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5286 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5288 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5290 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5291 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5299 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5301 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5302 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5303 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5304 a more informative way.
5306 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5307 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5308 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5309 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5310 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5311 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5313 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5314 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5317 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5318 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5319 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5322 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5323 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5324 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5325 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5326 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5327 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5329 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5330 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5331 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5332 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5335 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5336 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5337 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5338 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5339 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5340 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5342 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5343 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5344 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5345 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5346 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5348 *** regexp functions
5350 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5351 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5352 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5354 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5355 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5356 with SCSH regular expressions.
5358 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5359 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5360 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5361 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5363 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5364 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5365 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5366 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5368 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5369 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5370 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5371 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5372 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5373 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5375 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5376 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5377 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5378 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5379 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5381 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5383 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5384 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5385 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5386 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5388 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5389 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5390 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5392 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5393 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5395 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5398 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5399 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5400 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5402 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5403 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5404 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5406 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5407 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5408 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5409 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5410 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5413 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5415 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5416 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5417 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5418 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5419 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5420 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5422 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5423 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5424 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5426 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5427 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5430 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5431 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5433 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5434 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5435 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5436 may be one of the following arguments:
5438 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5440 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5442 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5443 the regexp match is written.
5445 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5446 following the regexp match is written.
5448 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5449 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5452 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5453 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5454 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5455 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5456 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5457 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5459 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5462 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5463 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5464 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5465 written out to PORT.
5467 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5468 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5469 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5470 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5471 will return after processing a single match.
5473 *** Match Structures
5475 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5476 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5477 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5478 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5479 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5480 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5483 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5484 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5485 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5486 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5487 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5489 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5490 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5491 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5493 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5494 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5495 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5496 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5497 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5499 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5500 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5502 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5503 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5505 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5506 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5508 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5509 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5511 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5512 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5513 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5514 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5516 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5517 Return the original TARGET string.
5519 *** Backslash Escapes
5521 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5522 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5523 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5524 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5525 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5526 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5528 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5529 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5530 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5531 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5532 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5533 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5534 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5535 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5537 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5538 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5539 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5540 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5541 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5542 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5543 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5545 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5546 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5547 return the resulting string.
5549 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5550 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5551 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5552 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5553 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5554 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5555 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5556 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5557 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5558 translated to the single character `*'.
5560 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5561 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5562 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5563 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5564 consecutive backslashes:
5566 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5568 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5569 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5570 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5572 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5573 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5574 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5575 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5576 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5577 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5579 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5581 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5582 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5583 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5584 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5585 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5586 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5587 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5588 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5589 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5590 cumbersome escape syntax.
5592 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5594 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5596 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5598 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5601 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5603 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5605 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5608 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5609 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5610 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5611 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5612 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5614 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5615 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5616 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5617 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5618 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5619 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5620 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5623 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5624 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5625 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5628 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5629 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5631 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5632 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5633 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5634 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5635 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5636 installed, you can say:
5638 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5641 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5643 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5644 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5645 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5646 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5647 new dynamic roots and threads.
5650 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5652 * Changes to the distribution.
5654 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5656 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5657 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5658 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5659 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5660 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5661 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5662 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5663 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5665 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5668 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5669 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5674 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5676 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5677 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5679 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5680 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5681 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5682 the (command-line) function.
5683 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5684 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5685 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5687 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5688 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5689 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5690 command line arguments
5691 -ds do -s script at this point
5692 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5693 -h, --help display this help and exit
5694 -v, --version display version information and exit
5695 \ read arguments from following script lines
5697 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5698 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5700 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5703 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5707 (main (command-line))
5709 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5711 ekko a speckled gecko
5713 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5714 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5715 following list of command-line arguments:
5717 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5719 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5720 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5721 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5722 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5723 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5725 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5727 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5729 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5730 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5733 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5734 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5735 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5736 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5738 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5739 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5740 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5741 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5743 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5747 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5751 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5753 ekko a speckled gecko
5755 Unix expands this into
5757 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5759 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5760 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5762 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5764 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5765 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5767 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5768 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5769 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5770 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5771 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5772 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5773 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5774 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5775 it only terminates the argument list.)
5776 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5777 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5778 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5779 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5780 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5781 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
5782 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
5783 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
5785 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5787 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
5788 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
5789 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
5790 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
5791 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
5793 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
5794 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
5795 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
5797 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
5799 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
5800 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
5801 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
5802 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
5805 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
5806 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5807 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5809 * Changes to Scheme functions
5811 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
5812 and disabled by default.
5814 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
5815 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
5816 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
5817 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
5819 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
5821 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
5823 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
5824 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
5826 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
5827 (read-set! keywords #f)
5829 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
5830 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
5831 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
5834 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
5835 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
5836 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
5839 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
5840 support for Scheme functions.
5842 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5843 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
5844 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
5845 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
5848 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5849 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
5850 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
5853 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
5854 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
5855 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
5858 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
5859 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
5860 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
5861 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
5862 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
5863 display the result as a prompt.
5864 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
5866 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
5867 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
5868 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
5871 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
5872 procedure of zero arguments.
5874 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
5875 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
5876 argument is bound in the current module.
5878 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
5879 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
5880 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
5881 public bindings into the current module.
5883 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
5884 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
5886 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
5887 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
5889 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
5890 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
5892 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
5893 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
5895 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
5896 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
5898 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
5899 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
5900 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
5901 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
5902 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
5904 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
5905 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
5906 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
5907 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
5909 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
5912 ** Changes to I/O functions
5914 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
5915 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
5916 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
5918 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
5919 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
5920 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
5922 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
5923 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
5925 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
5926 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
5927 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
5928 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
5930 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
5932 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
5933 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
5935 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
5936 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
5937 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
5938 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
5939 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
5942 'trim omit delimiter from result
5943 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
5944 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
5945 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
5947 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
5949 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
5950 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
5952 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
5953 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
5954 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
5955 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
5956 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
5958 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
5959 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
5960 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
5962 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
5963 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
5964 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
5965 above, and defaults to 'peek.
5967 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
5968 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5970 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
5971 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
5973 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
5975 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
5976 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
5977 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
5978 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
5979 a delimiting character.
5980 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
5982 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
5983 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
5984 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
5985 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
5986 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
5987 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
5989 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
5990 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5992 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
5993 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
5994 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
5996 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
5997 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
5998 the array to read and write.
6000 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6001 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6004 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6006 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6009 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6010 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6011 Values for COMMAND are:
6013 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6014 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6015 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6016 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6017 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6018 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6019 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6020 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6022 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6024 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6025 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6026 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6027 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6028 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6029 corresponding return set will be the same.
6031 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6034 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6035 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6036 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6037 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6038 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6039 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6040 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6041 special file being created.
6043 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6044 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6046 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6047 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6048 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6049 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6050 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6051 and originating address.
6053 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6054 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6055 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6057 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6060 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6061 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6064 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6065 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6066 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6067 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6068 this function returns #f.
6070 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6071 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6072 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6075 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6076 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6077 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6080 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6081 a valid STATUS value.
6083 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6085 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6086 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6088 Component Accessor Setter
6089 ========================= ============ ============
6090 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6091 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6092 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6093 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6094 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6095 year tm:year set-tm:year
6096 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6097 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6098 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6099 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6100 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6102 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6103 describing the host system:
6106 ============================================== ================
6107 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6108 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6109 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6110 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6111 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6113 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6114 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6115 system's user database:
6118 ====================== =================
6119 user name passwd:name
6120 user password passwd:passwd
6123 real name passwd:gecos
6124 home directory passwd:dir
6125 shell program passwd:shell
6127 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6128 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6129 system's group database:
6132 ======================= ============
6133 group name group:name
6134 group password group:passwd
6136 group members group:mem
6138 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6139 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6143 ========================= ===============
6144 official name of host hostent:name
6145 alias list hostent:aliases
6146 host address type hostent:addrtype
6147 length of address hostent:length
6148 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6150 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6151 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6155 ========================= ===============
6156 official name of net netent:name
6157 alias list netent:aliases
6158 net number type netent:addrtype
6159 net number netent:net
6161 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6162 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6166 ========================= ===============
6167 official protocol name protoent:name
6168 alias list protoent:aliases
6169 protocol number protoent:proto
6171 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6172 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6176 ========================= ===============
6177 official service name servent:name
6178 alias list servent:aliases
6179 port number servent:port
6180 protocol to use servent:proto
6182 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6183 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6186 ======================================== ===============
6187 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6188 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6189 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6190 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6192 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6193 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6194 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6196 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6197 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6199 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6200 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6202 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6203 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6205 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6207 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6209 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6210 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6211 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6213 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6214 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6215 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6216 return the remaining characters as a string.
6218 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6219 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6220 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6222 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6224 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6226 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6229 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6232 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6233 and returns the array
6235 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6236 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6237 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6239 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6241 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6242 symbol's value from C code:
6244 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6245 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6246 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6247 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6249 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6250 without assigning them a value.
6252 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6253 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6254 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6256 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6257 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6258 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6260 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6261 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6263 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6264 doesn't actually care about that.
6266 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6267 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6268 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6270 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6271 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6272 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6273 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6274 which we have just created and initialized.
6276 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6277 should one occur. We call it like this:
6278 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6280 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6281 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6282 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6283 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6284 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6285 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6288 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6289 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6290 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6291 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6292 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6293 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6294 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6297 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6298 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6299 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6300 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6301 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6304 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6305 scm_internal_catch, except:
6307 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6308 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6309 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6310 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6313 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6314 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6315 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6317 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6318 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6319 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6320 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6323 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6324 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6325 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6327 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6328 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6329 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6330 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6331 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6333 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6334 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6335 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6337 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6338 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6339 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6341 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6342 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6344 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6345 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6346 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6349 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6350 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6351 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6352 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6353 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6354 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6355 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6358 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6359 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6361 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6362 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6363 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6364 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6365 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6368 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6369 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6371 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6372 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6375 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6376 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6378 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6381 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6382 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6383 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6384 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6385 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6386 given the following arguments:
6388 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6390 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6392 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6394 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6397 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6398 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6399 command-line arguments.
6401 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6402 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6403 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6404 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6405 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6406 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6409 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6412 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6413 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6415 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6416 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6418 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6419 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6420 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6421 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6423 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6424 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6426 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6427 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6428 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6429 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6431 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6432 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6434 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6435 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6437 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6439 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6440 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6441 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6444 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6445 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6447 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6448 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6453 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6456 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6458 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6459 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6460 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6461 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6463 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6465 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6467 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6468 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6469 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6470 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6471 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6472 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6473 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6474 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6475 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6476 for more information.
6478 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6479 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6481 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6482 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6483 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6484 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6485 following two lines at the top of the file:
6487 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6490 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6491 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6492 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6494 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6496 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6498 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6501 (display (car args))
6502 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6504 (loop (cdr args)))))
6507 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6508 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6509 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6510 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6511 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6512 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6516 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6519 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6522 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6524 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6525 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6526 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6527 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6528 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6531 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6532 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6533 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6534 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6535 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6538 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6541 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6542 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6543 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6546 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6547 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6548 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6550 to see a backtrace, and
6551 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6552 to see them by default.
6556 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6558 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6560 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6561 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6564 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6565 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6566 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6567 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6570 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6571 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6572 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6573 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6574 functions which inspired them.
6576 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6577 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6581 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6583 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6585 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6586 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6589 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6590 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6591 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6593 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6594 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6595 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6596 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6597 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6599 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6601 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6602 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6603 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6606 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6609 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6611 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6612 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6613 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6614 above should serve their purposes.
6616 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6617 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6618 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6619 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6621 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6624 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6625 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6626 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6627 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6629 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6630 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6631 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6632 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6634 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6635 for the `read' function.
6638 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6639 to that of `integer?'.
6641 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6642 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6644 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6645 it simply returns the object's property list.
6647 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6648 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6649 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6650 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6652 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6654 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6657 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6659 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6660 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6662 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6664 void (*main_func) (),
6667 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6668 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6669 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6670 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6671 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6673 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6674 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6675 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6676 know which arguments have been processed.
6678 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6679 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6680 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6681 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6682 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6684 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6685 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6686 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6687 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6688 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6689 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6690 people from making that mistake.
6692 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6693 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6695 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6697 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6701 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6704 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6705 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6706 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6707 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6710 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6711 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6712 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6713 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6716 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6717 have been added to the Guile library.
6719 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6720 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6721 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6724 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6725 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6726 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6728 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6729 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6730 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6731 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6732 argument from the list.
6735 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6738 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6739 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6741 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6742 to a Scheme port object.
6744 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6745 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6750 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6752 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6753 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6754 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6755 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6756 code as a special datatype.
6758 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6759 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6760 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6761 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6762 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6765 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6766 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6767 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6768 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6769 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6771 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6774 Copyright information:
6776 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6778 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6779 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6780 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6781 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6783 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6784 of this document, or of portions of it,
6785 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6786 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6791 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"