1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
9 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
11 ** Readline support has changed again.
13 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
14 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
15 to activate readline is now
17 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
20 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
24 *** New function: hook? OBJ
26 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
28 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
30 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
32 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
34 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
37 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
39 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
40 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
41 mentioning it here anyway.
43 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
45 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
46 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
47 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
48 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
51 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
53 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
55 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
57 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
60 *** New function: directory? OBJECT
62 Returns a boolean indicating whether OBJECT is a directory port as
63 returned by `opendir'.
65 * Changes to the scm_ interface
67 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
69 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
70 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
72 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
74 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
75 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
76 documentation slots are not yet used.
78 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
80 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
81 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
82 argument mismatch. This functionality is enabled with the GOOPS
85 enable-primitive-generic! PRIMITIVE ...
87 It is then possible to extend the primitive(s) by defining methods for
88 them without loss of efficiency in normal evaluation.
92 (use-modules (oop goops))
93 (enable-primitive-generic! +)
94 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
97 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
98 can also be used for concatenating strings.
100 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
103 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
105 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
107 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
109 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
110 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
112 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
114 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
116 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
118 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
120 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
121 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
122 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
123 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
126 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
128 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
130 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
132 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
134 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
135 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
137 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
139 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
141 Evaluates the body of a special form.
143 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
145 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
146 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
147 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
148 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
149 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
150 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
152 This should not make any difference for most users.
154 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
156 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
157 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
159 *** New functions for applying generic functions
161 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
162 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
163 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
164 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
165 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
168 Changes since Guile 1.3:
170 * Changes to mailing lists
172 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
174 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
177 * Changes to the distribution
179 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
181 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
182 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
183 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
184 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
185 you explicitly specify it.
187 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
188 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
189 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
190 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
191 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
194 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
195 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
196 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
197 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
199 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
200 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
201 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
204 You can activate the readline support by issuing
206 (use-modules (readline-activator))
209 from your ".guile" file, for example.
211 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
213 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
214 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
215 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
216 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
218 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
219 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
222 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
224 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
225 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
226 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
227 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
228 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
229 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
230 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
231 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
243 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
244 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
245 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
246 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
247 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
252 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
253 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
261 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
266 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
267 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
270 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
271 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
272 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
273 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
275 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
277 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
279 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
280 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
282 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
284 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
286 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
287 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
289 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
292 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
294 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
296 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
298 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
300 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
302 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
304 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
305 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
306 when the hook was created.
308 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
309 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
310 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
311 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
312 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
313 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
314 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
315 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
316 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
318 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
319 the dlopen family of functions.
321 ** New function `provided?'
323 - Function: provided? FEATURE
324 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
325 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
326 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
328 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
330 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
331 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
332 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
333 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
336 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
337 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
338 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
339 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
341 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
342 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
343 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
346 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
347 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
348 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
349 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
350 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
351 but with the flag set.
353 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
355 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
356 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
358 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
359 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
360 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
361 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
362 available Scheme format implementations.
364 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
365 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
366 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
367 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
368 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
369 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
370 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
371 output is to the current error port if available by the
372 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
375 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
376 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
377 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
378 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
379 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
380 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
381 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
382 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
384 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
385 be executed at a time.
388 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
390 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
391 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
392 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
394 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
395 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
396 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
397 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
398 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
399 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
400 general form of a directive is:
402 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
404 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
406 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
408 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
409 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
410 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
413 Any (print as `display' does).
417 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
421 S-expression (print as `write' does).
425 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
431 print number sign always.
434 print comma separated.
436 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
442 print number sign always.
445 print comma separated.
447 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
453 print number sign always.
456 print comma separated.
458 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
464 print number sign always.
467 print comma separated.
469 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
474 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
478 print a number as a Roman numeral.
481 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
484 print a number as an ordinal English number.
487 print a number as a cardinal English number.
492 prints `y' and `ies'.
495 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
498 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
503 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
507 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
510 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
511 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
513 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
516 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
517 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
519 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
522 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
524 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
526 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
529 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
531 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
533 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
536 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
539 The sign appears before the padding.
547 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
549 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
554 print N page separators.
564 newline is ignored, white space left.
567 newline is left, white space ignored.
578 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
580 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
583 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
585 converts by `string-capitalize'.
588 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
591 converts by `string-upcase'.
594 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
596 jumps N arguments forward.
599 jumps 1 argument backward.
602 jumps N arguments backward.
605 jumps to the 0th argument.
608 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
610 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
611 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
613 take argument from N.
616 true test conditional.
619 if-else-then conditional.
625 default clause follows.
628 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
630 at most N iterations.
633 args from next arg (a list of lists).
636 args from the rest of arguments.
639 args from the rest args (lists).
650 aborts if N <= M <= K
652 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
655 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
658 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
664 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
666 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
668 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
669 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
670 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
671 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
672 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
673 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
677 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
681 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
687 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
690 Print a `#\space' character
692 print N `#\space' characters.
695 Print a `#\tab' character
697 print N `#\tab' characters.
700 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
701 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
702 must be a positive decimal number.
705 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
706 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
707 be processed by `read'.
710 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
711 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
712 be processed by `read'.
715 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
718 prints format version.
721 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
722 and format it accordingly.
724 *** Configuration Variables
726 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
727 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
728 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
729 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
732 format:symbol-case-conv
733 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
734 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
735 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
736 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
737 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
739 format:iobj-case-conv
740 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
741 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
744 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
747 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
753 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
754 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
755 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
756 `format' padding style.
759 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
760 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
761 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
762 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
766 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
767 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
768 directive parameters or modifiers)).
771 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
772 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
773 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
774 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
775 parameters or modifiers)).
778 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
780 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
782 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
783 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
785 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
786 string-downcase! functions.
788 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
789 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
791 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
794 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
797 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
798 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
800 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
802 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
803 the symbol had be read by `read'.
805 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
806 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
807 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
808 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
809 would if STRING were input.
811 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
813 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
814 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
815 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
816 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
819 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
821 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
822 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
825 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
827 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
828 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
830 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
831 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
833 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
834 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
835 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
836 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
838 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
839 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
841 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
842 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
843 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
845 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
846 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
848 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
849 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
850 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
851 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
852 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
854 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
855 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
856 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
857 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
858 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
859 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
861 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
862 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
863 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
866 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
867 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
868 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
869 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
870 the following grammar:
871 ((apples (single-char #\a))
872 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
873 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
874 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
875 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
876 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
877 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
878 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
879 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
880 last option in its combination)
882 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
883 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
884 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
885 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
887 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
888 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
889 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
891 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
892 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
893 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
895 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
896 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
897 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
898 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
899 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
900 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
901 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
902 ordinary argument strings.
904 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
905 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
906 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
907 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
909 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
910 as a list, associated with the empty list.
912 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
913 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
914 - a required option is omitted
915 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
916 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
917 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
918 - an option predicate fails
923 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
926 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
927 (verbose (required? #f)
930 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
931 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
932 (predicate ,string?))))
934 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
935 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
937 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
938 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
939 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
940 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
943 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
945 It will be removed in a few releases.
947 ** New syntax: lambda*
948 ** New syntax: define*
949 ** New syntax: define*-public
950 ** New syntax: defmacro*
951 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
952 Guile now supports optional arguments.
954 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
955 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
956 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
957 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
958 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
960 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
961 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
962 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
964 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
966 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
967 and examples for `lambda*':
970 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
972 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
973 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
974 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
975 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
976 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
977 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
978 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
979 can be checked with the bound? macro.
981 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
983 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
984 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
985 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
986 are given as keywords are bound to values.
988 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
989 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
990 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
991 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
992 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
993 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
994 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
995 and until the procedure is called.
997 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
999 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
1000 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
1001 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
1002 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
1003 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
1004 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
1005 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
1006 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
1007 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
1008 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
1010 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
1011 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
1012 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
1013 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
1016 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
1018 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
1019 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
1020 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
1021 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
1023 ** New syntax: and-let*
1024 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
1026 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
1027 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
1028 (<variable> <expression>)
1031 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
1032 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
1033 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
1036 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
1037 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
1038 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
1039 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
1040 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
1041 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
1042 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
1044 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
1045 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
1046 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
1047 shadow earlier bindings.
1049 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
1051 ** New sorting functions
1053 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
1054 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
1055 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
1056 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
1058 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
1059 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
1062 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
1063 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
1064 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
1066 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
1067 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
1068 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
1069 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
1071 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
1072 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
1073 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
1074 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
1075 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
1078 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
1079 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
1080 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
1081 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
1082 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
1083 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
1085 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
1086 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
1087 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
1089 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
1090 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
1091 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
1094 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
1095 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
1096 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
1098 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
1099 Added for compatibility with scsh.
1101 ** New built-in random number support
1103 *** New function: random N [STATE]
1104 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
1105 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
1106 returned have a uniform distribution.
1108 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
1109 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
1110 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
1111 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
1112 effect of the `random' operation.
1114 *** New variable: *random-state*
1115 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
1116 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
1117 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
1118 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
1119 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
1122 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
1123 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
1124 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
1125 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
1126 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
1128 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
1129 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
1130 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
1131 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
1132 initialized using SEED.
1134 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
1135 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
1136 range between 0 and 1.
1138 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
1139 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
1140 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
1141 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
1142 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
1143 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
1144 or a uniform vector of doubles.
1146 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
1147 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
1148 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
1149 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
1150 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
1151 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
1153 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
1154 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
1155 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
1156 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
1158 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
1159 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
1160 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
1161 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
1163 *** New function: random:exp STATE
1164 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
1165 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
1167 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
1169 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
1172 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
1173 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
1176 ** New function: make-guardian
1177 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
1178 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
1179 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
1180 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
1181 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
1183 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
1184 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
1185 one object if at all.
1187 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
1188 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
1189 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
1191 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
1192 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
1193 read again in last-in first-out order.
1195 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
1196 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
1198 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
1200 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
1201 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
1202 file position is used.
1204 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
1205 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
1206 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
1208 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
1209 redefined using seek.
1211 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
1212 size is not supplied.
1214 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
1215 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
1217 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
1218 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
1220 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
1222 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
1223 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
1224 and returns the contents as a single string.
1226 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
1227 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
1228 lists in serial order.
1230 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
1231 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
1232 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
1234 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
1235 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
1236 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
1237 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
1239 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
1240 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
1241 and #f if an error occured.
1243 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
1245 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
1246 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
1247 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
1248 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
1250 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
1252 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
1255 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
1257 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
1260 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1264 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
1265 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
1267 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
1268 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
1272 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1274 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
1276 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
1277 binds a variable named NAME to it.
1279 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
1281 Currently, the variable is created in the root module. This will
1282 change when we get the new module system.
1284 ** The smob interface
1286 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
1287 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
1289 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
1291 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
1295 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
1296 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
1297 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
1298 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
1299 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
1300 will be freed by the default free function.
1302 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
1303 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
1304 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
1305 `scm_make_smob_type'.
1307 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
1308 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
1309 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
1310 `scm_make_smob_type'.
1312 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
1314 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
1315 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
1319 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
1320 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
1321 `scm_make_smob_type'.
1323 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
1324 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
1325 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
1326 `scm_make_smob_type'.
1328 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
1329 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
1330 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
1332 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
1333 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
1334 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
1335 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
1337 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
1338 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
1339 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
1341 *** scm_newptob has been removed
1345 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
1347 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
1348 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
1349 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
1351 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
1352 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
1353 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
1355 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
1356 a string port's buffer.
1358 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
1359 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
1360 function pointers which together define the current random number
1361 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
1362 number library functions.
1364 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
1367 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
1368 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
1371 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
1372 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
1374 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
1375 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
1377 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
1378 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
1381 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
1382 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
1383 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
1384 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
1386 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
1387 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
1388 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
1389 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
1390 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
1391 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
1392 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
1394 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
1395 by libguile and the application.
1397 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
1398 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
1399 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
1400 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
1402 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
1403 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
1405 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
1406 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
1407 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
1409 ** Random number library functions
1410 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
1411 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
1412 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
1414 The default random state is stored in:
1416 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
1417 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
1418 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
1423 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
1425 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
1426 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
1427 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
1428 isn't a random state.
1430 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
1431 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
1433 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
1434 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
1435 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
1436 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
1438 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
1439 Return 32 random bits.
1441 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
1442 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
1444 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
1445 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
1447 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
1448 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
1450 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
1451 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
1453 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
1454 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
1455 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
1459 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
1461 * Changes to the distribution
1463 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
1464 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
1465 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
1468 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
1469 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
1470 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
1472 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
1473 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
1474 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
1475 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
1478 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
1479 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
1480 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
1482 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1484 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
1486 *** Function: batch-mode?
1488 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
1491 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
1493 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
1494 case has not been implemented.
1496 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
1497 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
1498 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
1501 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
1502 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
1504 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
1506 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
1508 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
1510 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
1511 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
1514 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
1515 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
1516 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
1517 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
1520 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
1522 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
1523 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
1524 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
1525 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
1526 find those libraries.
1528 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
1529 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
1532 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
1534 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
1535 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
1536 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
1537 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
1539 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
1540 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
1541 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
1545 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
1547 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
1548 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
1549 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
1552 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
1553 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
1554 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
1555 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
1557 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
1558 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
1561 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
1562 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
1563 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
1564 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
1565 compiler where to find the libraries.
1567 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
1568 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
1569 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
1571 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
1572 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
1573 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
1574 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
1575 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
1579 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1581 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
1582 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
1583 internationalization support.
1585 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
1586 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
1587 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
1588 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
1589 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
1591 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
1592 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
1593 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
1594 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
1595 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
1597 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
1598 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
1599 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
1600 any GNU mirror site.
1602 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
1604 ** New function: add-history STRING
1605 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
1606 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
1607 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
1609 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
1611 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
1612 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
1613 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
1616 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
1617 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
1618 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
1620 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
1622 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
1625 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
1626 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
1629 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
1630 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
1631 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
1632 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
1633 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
1634 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
1636 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
1637 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
1638 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
1639 of the form mentioned above.
1641 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
1642 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
1643 returned in the special `rest' list.
1645 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
1646 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
1648 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
1650 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
1652 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
1654 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
1655 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
1656 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
1657 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
1658 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
1659 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
1660 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
1661 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
1664 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
1666 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
1668 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
1669 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
1672 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
1673 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
1674 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
1678 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
1679 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
1680 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
1681 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
1682 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
1683 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
1684 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
1685 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
1688 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
1690 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
1691 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
1692 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
1694 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
1696 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
1697 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
1699 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
1700 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
1701 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
1703 Why do we have this function?
1704 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
1705 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
1706 primitive, and display it differently, and
1707 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
1708 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
1711 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
1712 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
1715 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
1716 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
1717 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
1718 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
1720 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
1721 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
1724 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
1725 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
1727 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
1729 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
1730 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
1731 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
1732 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
1733 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
1734 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
1735 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
1738 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
1740 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
1741 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
1743 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
1744 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
1745 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
1746 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
1747 properly continue the print chain.
1749 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
1750 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
1751 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
1752 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
1753 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
1754 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
1755 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
1756 print-state, it is simply ignored.
1758 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
1759 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
1760 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
1761 safest to not check for these pairs.
1763 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
1764 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
1765 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
1766 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
1768 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
1770 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
1771 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
1773 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
1775 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
1777 ** There is now a fourth (optional) argument to make-vtable-vtable and
1778 make-struct when constructing new types (vtables). This argument
1779 initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
1781 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
1782 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
1783 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
1785 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
1786 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
1787 the following functions and macros:
1789 Function: make-fluid
1791 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
1792 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
1793 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
1794 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
1795 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
1797 Function: fluid? OBJ
1799 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
1801 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
1802 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
1804 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
1805 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
1807 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
1809 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
1810 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
1811 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
1812 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
1813 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
1814 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
1815 modified by `with-fluids*'.
1817 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
1819 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
1820 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
1821 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
1822 should evaluate to a fluid.
1824 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
1826 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
1827 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
1828 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
1829 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
1830 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
1832 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
1835 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
1837 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
1839 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
1841 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
1844 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
1845 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
1846 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
1847 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
1848 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
1851 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
1852 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
1853 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
1855 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
1856 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
1857 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
1859 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
1860 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
1861 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
1862 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
1864 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
1865 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
1866 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
1867 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
1869 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
1870 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
1871 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
1872 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
1874 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
1875 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
1876 their revealed counts set to zero.
1878 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
1879 Returns an integer file descriptor.
1881 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
1882 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
1884 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
1885 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
1887 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
1888 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
1889 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
1891 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
1892 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
1893 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
1895 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
1896 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
1897 default environment inherited by child processes.
1899 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
1900 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
1901 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
1903 The return value is unspecified.
1905 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
1906 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
1907 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
1908 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
1909 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
1911 The return value is unspecified.
1913 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
1914 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
1922 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
1923 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
1926 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
1929 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
1930 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
1931 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
1933 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
1934 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
1935 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
1936 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
1939 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
1940 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
1942 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
1943 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
1944 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
1945 the `environ' procedure.
1947 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
1948 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
1951 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
1952 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
1954 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
1955 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
1956 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
1957 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
1959 *** procedure: times
1960 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
1961 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
1962 return a selected component:
1965 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
1969 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
1972 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
1976 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
1977 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
1981 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
1982 terminated child processes.
1984 ** Removed: list-length
1985 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
1986 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
1988 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
1990 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
1992 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
1994 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
1995 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
1996 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
1997 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
1999 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
2000 extra complexity it introduces.
2002 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
2003 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
2005 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
2006 variable to any non-empty value.
2008 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
2009 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
2011 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2013 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
2014 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
2016 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
2018 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
2019 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
2021 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
2023 ** vector handling routines
2025 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
2026 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
2027 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
2028 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
2029 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
2031 ** pair and list routines
2033 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
2036 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
2038 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
2041 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2043 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
2045 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
2046 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
2047 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
2048 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
2049 site-specific initialization code.
2051 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
2052 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
2053 initialization processes.
2055 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
2056 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
2057 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
2058 initialized properly.
2060 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
2061 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
2062 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
2064 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
2065 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
2066 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
2067 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
2068 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
2070 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
2072 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
2073 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
2074 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
2075 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
2076 objects the smob refers to get marked.
2078 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
2079 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
2080 which look like this:
2083 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
2085 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
2086 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
2089 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
2090 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
2093 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
2095 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
2096 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
2097 you will need to change your functions slightly.
2099 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
2100 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
2101 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
2102 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
2103 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
2105 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
2106 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
2108 int (*free) (SCM port);
2109 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
2110 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
2111 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
2115 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
2116 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
2117 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
2119 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
2122 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
2123 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
2124 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
2126 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
2127 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
2128 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
2131 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
2135 struct timeval *timeout);
2137 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
2138 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
2139 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
2140 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
2141 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
2142 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
2144 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
2145 scm_catch_body_t body,
2147 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
2150 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
2151 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
2152 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
2153 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
2154 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
2155 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
2157 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
2159 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
2162 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
2163 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
2164 spawning threads from application C code.
2166 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
2167 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
2168 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
2169 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
2170 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
2171 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
2173 ** Removed functions:
2175 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
2176 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
2178 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
2180 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
2181 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
2183 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
2185 ** mbstrings are now removed
2187 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
2188 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
2190 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
2192 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
2193 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
2194 their new names and arguments:
2196 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
2197 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
2198 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
2199 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
2202 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
2204 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
2206 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
2209 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
2211 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
2212 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
2213 pass a #f arg to catch.
2215 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
2217 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
2218 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
2221 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
2222 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
2223 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
2224 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
2225 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
2226 reclaim its storage.
2228 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
2229 worrying that some other function you call will call
2230 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
2231 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
2232 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
2233 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
2236 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
2238 * Changes to the distribution
2240 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
2241 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
2244 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
2245 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
2247 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
2248 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
2250 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
2252 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
2253 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
2254 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
2256 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
2258 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
2259 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
2260 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
2261 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
2262 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
2263 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
2265 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
2266 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
2267 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
2270 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
2271 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
2272 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
2273 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
2275 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
2276 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
2277 libraries to your link command:
2279 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
2280 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
2281 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
2282 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
2284 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
2285 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
2286 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
2288 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2290 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
2291 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
2294 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
2296 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
2297 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
2298 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
2299 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
2300 searched is system dependent.
2302 (dynamic-object? VAL)
2304 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
2306 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
2308 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
2309 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
2311 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
2313 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
2314 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
2315 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
2316 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
2317 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
2320 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
2322 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
2323 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
2324 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
2325 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
2326 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
2328 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
2330 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
2331 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
2333 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
2335 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
2336 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
2337 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
2340 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
2342 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
2343 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
2344 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
2345 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
2347 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
2348 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
2350 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
2352 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
2353 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
2355 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
2357 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
2358 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
2366 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
2368 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
2369 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
2370 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
2371 a more informative way.
2373 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
2374 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
2375 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
2376 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
2377 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
2378 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
2380 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
2381 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
2384 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
2385 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
2386 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
2389 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
2390 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
2391 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
2392 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
2393 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
2394 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
2396 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
2397 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
2398 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
2399 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
2402 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
2403 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
2404 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
2405 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
2406 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
2407 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
2409 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
2410 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
2411 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
2412 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
2413 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
2415 *** regexp functions
2417 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
2418 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
2419 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
2421 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
2422 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
2423 with SCSH regular expressions.
2425 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
2426 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
2427 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
2428 position of STR at which to begin matching.
2430 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
2431 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
2432 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
2433 `string-match' returns `#f'.
2435 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
2436 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
2437 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
2438 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
2439 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
2440 match strings against the compiled regexp.
2442 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
2443 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
2444 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
2445 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
2446 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
2448 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
2450 **** Constant: regexp/extended
2451 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
2452 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
2453 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
2455 **** Constant: regexp/icase
2456 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
2457 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
2459 **** Constant: regexp/newline
2460 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
2462 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
2465 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
2466 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
2467 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
2469 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
2470 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
2471 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
2473 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
2474 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
2475 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
2476 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
2477 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
2480 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
2482 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
2483 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
2484 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
2485 used when different portions of a string are passed to
2486 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
2487 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
2489 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
2490 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
2491 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
2493 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
2494 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
2497 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
2498 and replace them with the contents of another string.
2500 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
2501 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
2502 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
2503 may be one of the following arguments:
2505 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
2507 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
2509 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
2510 the regexp match is written.
2512 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
2513 following the regexp match is written.
2515 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
2516 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
2519 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
2520 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
2521 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
2522 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
2523 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
2524 which should be matched against this regular expression.
2526 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
2529 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
2530 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
2531 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
2532 written out to PORT.
2534 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
2535 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
2536 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
2537 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
2538 will return after processing a single match.
2540 *** Match Structures
2542 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
2543 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
2544 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
2545 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
2546 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
2547 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
2550 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
2551 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
2552 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
2553 information about the original target string that was matched against a
2554 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
2556 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
2557 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
2558 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
2560 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
2561 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
2562 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
2563 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
2564 number N did not match, return `#f'.
2566 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
2567 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
2569 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
2570 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
2572 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
2573 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
2575 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
2576 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
2578 **** Function: match:count MATCH
2579 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
2580 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
2581 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
2583 **** Function: match:string MATCH
2584 Return the original TARGET string.
2586 *** Backslash Escapes
2588 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
2589 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
2590 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
2591 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
2592 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
2593 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
2595 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
2596 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
2597 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
2598 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
2599 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
2600 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
2601 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
2602 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
2604 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
2605 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
2606 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
2607 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
2608 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
2609 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
2610 each match a single backslash in the target string.
2612 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
2613 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
2614 return the resulting string.
2616 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
2617 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
2618 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
2619 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
2620 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
2621 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
2622 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
2623 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
2624 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
2625 translated to the single character `*'.
2627 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
2628 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
2629 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
2630 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
2631 consecutive backslashes:
2633 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
2635 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
2636 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
2637 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
2639 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
2640 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
2641 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
2642 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
2643 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
2644 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
2646 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
2648 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
2649 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
2650 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
2651 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
2652 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
2653 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
2654 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
2655 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
2656 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
2657 cumbersome escape syntax.
2659 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2661 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2663 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2665 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
2668 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
2670 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
2672 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
2675 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
2676 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
2677 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
2678 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
2679 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
2681 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
2682 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
2683 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
2684 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
2685 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
2686 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
2687 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
2690 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
2691 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
2692 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
2695 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
2696 `force-output' on every port open for output.
2698 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
2699 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
2700 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
2701 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
2702 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
2703 installed, you can say:
2705 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
2708 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2710 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
2711 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
2712 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
2713 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
2714 new dynamic roots and threads.
2717 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
2719 * Changes to the distribution.
2721 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
2723 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
2724 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
2725 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
2726 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
2727 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
2728 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
2729 programming language. These are packaged together because the
2730 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
2732 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
2735 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
2736 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
2741 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2743 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
2744 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
2746 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
2747 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
2748 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
2749 the (command-line) function.
2750 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
2751 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
2752 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
2754 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
2755 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
2756 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
2757 command line arguments
2758 -ds do -s script at this point
2759 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
2760 -h, --help display this help and exit
2761 -v, --version display version information and exit
2762 \ read arguments from following script lines
2764 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
2765 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
2767 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
2770 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
2774 (main (command-line))
2776 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
2778 ekko a speckled gecko
2780 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
2781 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
2782 following list of command-line arguments:
2784 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
2786 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
2787 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
2788 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
2789 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
2790 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
2792 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
2794 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
2796 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
2797 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
2800 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
2801 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
2802 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
2803 SCSH) for circumventing them.
2805 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
2806 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
2807 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
2808 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
2810 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
2814 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
2818 If the user invokes this script as follows:
2820 ekko a speckled gecko
2822 Unix expands this into
2824 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
2826 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
2827 read from the second line of the script, producing:
2829 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
2831 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
2832 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
2834 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
2835 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
2836 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
2837 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
2838 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
2839 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
2840 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
2841 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
2842 it only terminates the argument list.)
2843 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
2844 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
2845 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
2846 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
2847 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
2848 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
2849 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
2850 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
2852 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
2854 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
2855 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
2856 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
2857 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
2858 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
2860 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
2861 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
2862 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
2864 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
2866 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
2867 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
2868 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
2869 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
2872 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
2873 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
2874 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
2876 * Changes to Scheme functions
2878 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
2879 and disabled by default.
2881 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
2882 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
2883 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
2884 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
2886 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
2888 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
2890 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
2891 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2893 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
2894 (read-set! keywords #f)
2896 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
2897 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
2898 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
2901 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
2902 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
2903 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
2906 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
2907 support for Scheme functions.
2909 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
2910 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
2911 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
2912 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
2915 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
2916 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
2917 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
2920 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
2921 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
2922 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
2925 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
2926 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
2927 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
2928 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
2929 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
2930 display the result as a prompt.
2931 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
2933 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
2934 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
2935 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
2938 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
2939 procedure of zero arguments.
2941 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
2942 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
2943 argument is bound in the current module.
2945 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
2946 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
2947 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
2948 public bindings into the current module.
2950 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
2951 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
2953 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
2954 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
2956 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
2957 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
2959 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
2960 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
2962 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
2963 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
2965 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
2966 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
2967 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
2968 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
2969 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
2971 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
2972 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
2973 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
2974 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
2976 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
2979 ** Changes to I/O functions
2981 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
2982 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
2983 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
2985 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
2986 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
2987 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
2989 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
2990 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
2992 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
2993 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
2994 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
2995 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
2997 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
2999 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
3000 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
3002 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
3003 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
3004 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
3005 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
3006 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
3009 'trim omit delimiter from result
3010 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
3011 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
3012 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
3014 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
3016 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
3017 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
3019 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
3020 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
3021 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
3022 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
3023 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
3025 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
3026 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
3027 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
3029 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
3030 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
3031 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
3032 above, and defaults to 'peek.
3034 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
3035 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
3037 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
3038 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
3040 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
3042 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
3043 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
3044 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
3045 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
3046 a delimiting character.
3047 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
3049 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
3050 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
3051 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
3052 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
3053 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
3054 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
3056 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
3057 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
3059 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
3060 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
3061 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
3063 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
3064 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
3065 the array to read and write.
3067 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
3068 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
3071 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
3073 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
3076 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
3077 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
3078 Values for COMMAND are:
3080 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
3081 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
3082 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
3083 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
3084 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
3085 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
3086 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
3087 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
3089 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
3091 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
3092 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
3093 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
3094 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
3095 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
3096 corresponding return set will be the same.
3098 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
3101 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
3102 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
3103 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
3104 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
3105 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
3106 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
3107 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
3108 special file being created.
3110 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
3111 clashing with various SCSH forks.
3113 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
3114 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
3115 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
3116 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
3117 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
3118 and originating address.
3120 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
3121 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
3122 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
3124 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
3127 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
3128 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
3131 (status:exit-val STATUS)
3132 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
3133 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
3134 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
3135 this function returns #f.
3137 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
3138 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
3139 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
3142 (status:term-sig STATUS)
3143 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
3144 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
3147 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
3148 a valid STATUS value.
3150 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
3152 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
3153 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
3155 Component Accessor Setter
3156 ========================= ============ ============
3157 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
3158 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
3159 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
3160 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
3161 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
3162 year tm:year set-tm:year
3163 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
3164 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
3165 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
3166 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
3167 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
3169 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
3170 describing the host system:
3173 ============================================== ================
3174 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
3175 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
3176 release level of the operating system utsname:release
3177 version level of the operating system utsname:version
3178 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
3180 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
3181 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
3182 system's user database:
3185 ====================== =================
3186 user name passwd:name
3187 user password passwd:passwd
3190 real name passwd:gecos
3191 home directory passwd:dir
3192 shell program passwd:shell
3194 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
3195 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
3196 system's group database:
3199 ======================= ============
3200 group name group:name
3201 group password group:passwd
3203 group members group:mem
3205 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
3206 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
3210 ========================= ===============
3211 official name of host hostent:name
3212 alias list hostent:aliases
3213 host address type hostent:addrtype
3214 length of address hostent:length
3215 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
3217 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
3218 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
3222 ========================= ===============
3223 official name of net netent:name
3224 alias list netent:aliases
3225 net number type netent:addrtype
3226 net number netent:net
3228 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
3229 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
3233 ========================= ===============
3234 official protocol name protoent:name
3235 alias list protoent:aliases
3236 protocol number protoent:proto
3238 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
3239 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
3243 ========================= ===============
3244 official service name servent:name
3245 alias list servent:aliases
3246 port number servent:port
3247 protocol to use servent:proto
3249 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
3250 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
3253 ======================================== ===============
3254 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
3255 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
3256 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
3257 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
3259 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
3260 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
3261 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
3263 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
3264 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
3266 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
3267 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
3269 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
3270 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
3272 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
3274 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
3276 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
3277 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
3278 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
3280 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
3281 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
3282 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
3283 return the remaining characters as a string.
3285 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
3286 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
3287 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
3289 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
3291 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3293 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
3296 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
3299 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
3300 and returns the array
3302 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
3303 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
3304 the user to interpret the data both ways.
3306 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3308 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
3309 symbol's value from C code:
3311 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
3312 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
3313 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
3314 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
3316 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
3317 without assigning them a value.
3319 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
3320 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
3321 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
3323 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
3324 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
3325 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
3327 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
3328 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
3330 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
3331 doesn't actually care about that.
3333 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
3334 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
3335 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
3337 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
3338 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
3339 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
3340 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
3341 which we have just created and initialized.
3343 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
3344 should one occur. We call it like this:
3345 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
3347 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
3348 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
3349 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
3350 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
3351 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
3352 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
3355 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
3356 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
3357 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
3358 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
3359 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
3360 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
3361 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
3364 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
3365 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
3366 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
3367 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
3368 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
3371 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
3372 scm_internal_catch, except:
3374 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
3375 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
3376 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
3377 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
3380 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
3381 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
3382 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
3384 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
3385 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
3386 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
3387 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
3390 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
3391 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
3392 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
3394 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
3395 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
3396 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
3397 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
3398 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
3400 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
3401 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
3402 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
3404 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
3405 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
3406 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
3408 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
3409 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
3411 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
3412 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
3413 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
3416 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
3417 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
3418 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
3419 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
3420 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
3421 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
3422 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
3425 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
3426 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
3428 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
3429 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
3430 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
3431 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
3432 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
3435 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
3436 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
3438 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
3439 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
3442 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
3443 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
3445 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
3448 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
3449 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
3450 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
3451 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
3452 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
3453 given the following arguments:
3455 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
3457 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
3459 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
3461 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
3464 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
3465 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
3466 command-line arguments.
3468 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
3469 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
3470 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
3471 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
3472 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
3473 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
3476 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
3479 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
3480 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
3482 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
3483 rearranged slightly. They are now:
3485 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
3486 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
3487 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
3488 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
3490 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
3491 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
3493 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
3494 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
3495 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
3496 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
3498 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
3499 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
3501 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
3502 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
3504 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
3506 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
3507 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
3508 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
3511 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
3512 returns a port instead of an FD object.
3514 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
3515 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
3520 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
3523 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
3525 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
3526 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
3527 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
3528 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
3530 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
3532 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
3534 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
3535 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
3536 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
3537 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
3538 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
3539 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
3540 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
3541 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
3542 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
3543 for more information.
3545 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
3546 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
3548 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
3549 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
3550 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
3551 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
3552 following two lines at the top of the file:
3554 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
3557 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
3558 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
3559 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
3561 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
3563 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
3565 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
3568 (display (car args))
3569 (if (pair? (cdr args))
3571 (loop (cdr args)))))
3574 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
3575 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
3576 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
3577 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
3578 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
3579 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
3583 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
3586 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
3589 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
3591 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
3592 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
3593 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
3594 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
3595 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
3598 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
3599 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
3600 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
3601 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
3602 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
3605 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
3608 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
3609 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
3610 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
3613 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
3614 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
3615 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
3617 to see a backtrace, and
3618 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
3619 to see them by default.
3623 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
3625 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
3627 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
3628 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
3631 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
3632 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
3633 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
3634 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
3637 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
3638 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
3639 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
3640 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
3641 functions which inspired them.
3643 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
3644 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
3648 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
3650 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
3652 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
3653 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
3656 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
3657 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
3658 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
3660 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
3661 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
3662 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
3663 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
3664 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
3666 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
3668 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
3669 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
3670 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
3673 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
3676 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
3678 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
3679 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
3680 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
3681 above should serve their purposes.
3683 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
3684 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
3685 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
3686 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
3688 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
3691 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
3692 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
3693 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
3694 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
3696 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
3697 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
3698 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
3699 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
3701 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
3702 for the `read' function.
3705 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
3706 to that of `integer?'.
3708 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
3709 use the R4RS names for these functions.
3711 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
3712 it simply returns the object's property list.
3714 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
3715 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
3716 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
3717 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
3719 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
3721 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
3724 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
3726 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
3727 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
3729 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
3731 void (*main_func) (),
3734 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
3735 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
3736 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
3737 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
3738 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
3740 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
3741 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
3742 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
3743 know which arguments have been processed.
3745 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
3746 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
3747 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
3748 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
3749 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
3751 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
3752 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
3753 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
3754 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
3755 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
3756 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
3757 people from making that mistake.
3759 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
3760 convenient ways to override these when desired.
3762 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
3764 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
3768 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
3771 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
3772 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
3773 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
3774 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
3777 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
3778 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
3779 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
3780 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
3783 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
3784 have been added to the Guile library.
3786 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
3787 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
3788 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
3791 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
3792 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
3793 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
3795 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
3796 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
3797 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
3798 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
3799 argument from the list.
3802 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
3805 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
3806 null-terminated string, and returns it.
3808 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
3809 to a Scheme port object.
3811 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
3812 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
3817 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
3819 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
3820 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
3821 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
3822 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
3823 code as a special datatype.
3825 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
3826 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
3827 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
3828 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
3829 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
3832 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
3833 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
3834 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
3835 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
3836 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
3838 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
3841 Copyright information:
3843 Copyright (C) 1996,1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3845 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
3846 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
3847 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
3848 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
3850 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
3851 of this document, or of portions of it,
3852 under the above conditions, provided also that they
3853 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
3858 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"