1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Changes in 2.0.2 (since 2.0.1):
12 ** `guile-tools' renamed to `guild'
14 The new name is shorter. Its intended future use is for a CPAN-like
15 system for Guile wizards and journeyfolk to band together to share code;
16 hence the name. `guile-tools' is provided as a backward-compatible
17 symbolic link. See "Using Guile Tools" in the manual, for more.
19 ** New control operators: `shift' and `reset'
21 See "Shift and Reset" in the manual, for more information.
23 ** `while' as an expression
25 Previously the return value of `while' was unspecified. Now its
26 values are specified both in the case of normal termination, and via
27 termination by invoking `break', possibly with arguments. See "while
28 do" in the manual for more.
30 ** Disallow access to handles of weak hash tables
32 `hash-get-handle' and `hash-create-handle!' are no longer permitted to
33 be called on weak hash tables, because the fields in a weak handle could
34 be nulled out by the garbage collector at any time, but yet they are
35 otherwise indistinguishable from pairs. Use `hash-ref' and `hash-set!'
38 ** More precision for `get-internal-run-time', `get-internal-real-time'
40 On 64-bit systems which support POSIX clocks, Guile's internal timing
41 procedures offer nanosecond resolution instead of the 10-millisecond
42 resolution previously available. 32-bit systems now use 1-millisecond
45 ** Guile now measures time spent in GC
47 `gc-stats' now returns a meaningful value for `gc-time-taken'.
51 The statprof profiler now exports a `gcprof' procedure, driven by the
52 `after-gc-hook', to see which parts of your program are causing GC. Let
53 us know if you find it useful.
55 ** `map', `for-each' and some others now implemented in Scheme
57 We would not mention this in NEWS, as it is not a user-visible change,
58 if it were not for one thing: `map' and `for-each' are no longer
59 primitive generics. Instead they are normal bindings, which can be
60 wrapped by normal generics. This fixes some modularity issues between
61 core `map', SRFI-1 `map', and GOOPS.
63 Also it's pretty cool that we can do this without a performance impact.
65 ** Add `scm_peek_byte_or_eof'.
67 This helper is like `scm_peek_char_or_eof', but for bytes instead of
70 ** Implement #:stop-at-first-non-option option for getopt-long
72 See "getopt-long Reference" in the manual, for more information.
74 ** Improve R6RS conformance for conditions in the I/O libraries
76 The `(rnrs io simple)' module now raises the correct R6RS conditions in
77 error cases. `(rnrs io ports)' is also more correct now, though it is
78 still a work in progress.
80 ** All deprecated routines emit warnings
82 A few deprecated routines were lacking deprecation warnings. This has
87 ** Constants in compiled code now share state better
89 Constants with shared state, like `("foo")' and `"foo"', now share state
90 as much as possible, in the entire compilation unit. This cuts compiled
91 `.go' file sizes in half, generally, and speeds startup.
93 ** VLists: optimize `vlist-fold-right', and add `vhash-fold-right'
95 These procedures are now twice as fast as they were.
97 ** UTF-8 ports to bypass `iconv' entirely
99 This reduces memory usage in a very common case.
103 The compiler is now about 40% faster. (Note that this is only the case
104 once the compiler is itself compiled, so the build still takes as long
109 Some assertions that were mostly useful for sanity-checks on the
110 bytecode compiler are now off for both "regular" and "debug" engines.
111 This together with a fix to cache a TLS access and some other tweaks
112 improve the VM's performance by about 20%.
114 ** SRFI-1 list-set optimizations
116 lset-adjoin and lset-union now have fast paths for eq? sets.
118 ** `memq', `memv' optimizations
120 These procedures are now at least twice as fast than in 2.0.1.
124 ** Deprecate scm_whash API
126 `scm_whash_get_handle', `SCM_WHASHFOUNDP', `SCM_WHASHREF',
127 `SCM_WHASHSET', `scm_whash_create_handle', `scm_whash_lookup', and
128 `scm_whash_insert' are now deprecated. Use the normal hash table API
131 ** Deprecate scm_struct_table
133 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME',
134 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS',
135 `scm_struct_table', and `scm_struct_create_handle' are now deprecated.
136 These routines formed part of the internals of the map between structs
139 ** Deprecate scm_internal_dynamic_wind
141 The `scm_t_inner' type and `scm_internal_dynamic_wind' are deprecated,
142 as the `scm_dynwind' API is better, and this API encourages users to
143 stuff SCM values into pointers.
145 ** Deprecate scm_immutable_cell, scm_immutable_double_cell
147 These routines are deprecated, as the GC_STUBBORN API doesn't do
152 Andreas Rottman kindly transcribed the missing parts of the `(rnrs io
153 ports)' documentation from the R6RS documentation. Thanks Andreas!
157 ** Fix double-loading of script in -ds case
158 ** -x error message fix
159 ** iconveh-related cross-compilation fixes
160 ** Fix small integer return value packing on big endian machines.
161 ** Fix hash-set! in weak-value table from non-immediate to immediate
162 ** Fix call-with-input-file & relatives for multiple values
163 ** Fix `hash' for inf and nan
164 ** Fix libguile internal type errors caught by typing-strictness==2
165 ** Fix compile error in mingw fstat socket detection
166 ** Fix multithreaded access to internal hash tables
167 ** Emit a 1-based line number in error messages
168 ** Fix define-module ordering
171 Changes in 2.0.1 (since 2.0.0):
175 ** guile.m4 supports linking with rpath
177 The GUILE_FLAGS macro now sets GUILE_LIBS and GUILE_LTLIBS, which
178 include appropriate directives to the linker to include libguile-2.0.so
179 in the runtime library lookup path.
181 ** `begin' expands macros in its body before other expressions
183 This enables support for programs like the following:
188 (or (= x 0) (odd? (- x 1)))))
191 ((odd? x) (not (even? x)))))
194 ** REPL reader usability enhancements
196 The REPL now flushes input after a read error, which should prevent one
197 error from causing other errors. The REPL also now interprets comments
200 ** REPL output has configurable width
202 The REPL now defaults to output with the current terminal's width, in
203 columns. See "Debug Commands" in the manual for more information on
206 ** Better C access to the module system
208 Guile now has convenient C accessors to look up variables or values in
209 modules and their public interfaces. See `scm_c_public_ref' and friends
210 in "Accessing Modules from C" in the manual.
212 ** Added `scm_call_5', `scm_call_6'
214 See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
216 ** Added `scm_from_latin1_keyword', `scm_from_utf8_keyword'
218 See "Keyword Procedures" in the manual, for more. Note that
219 `scm_from_locale_keyword' should not be used when the name is a C string
222 ** R6RS unicode and string I/O work
224 Added efficient implementations of `get-string-n' and `get-string-n!'
225 for binary ports. Exported `current-input-port', `current-output-port'
226 and `current-error-port' from `(rnrs io ports)', and enhanced support
229 ** Added `pointer->scm', `scm->pointer' to `(system foreign)'
231 These procedure are useful if one needs to pass and receive SCM values
232 to and from foreign functions. See "Foreign Variables" in the manual,
235 ** Added `heap-allocated-since-gc' to `(gc-stats)'
237 Also fixed the long-standing bug in the REPL `,stat' command.
239 ** Add `on-error' REPL option
241 This option controls what happens when an error occurs at the REPL, and
242 defaults to `debug', indicating that Guile should enter the debugger.
243 Other values include `report', which will simply print a backtrace
244 without entering the debugger. See "System Commands" in the manual.
246 ** Enforce immutability of string literals
248 Attempting to mutate a string literal now causes a runtime error.
250 ** Fix pthread redirection
252 Guile 2.0.0 shipped with headers that, if configured with pthread
253 support, would re-define `pthread_create', `pthread_join', and other API
254 to redirect to the BDW-GC wrappers, `GC_pthread_create', etc. This was
255 unintended, and not necessary: because threads must enter Guile with
256 `scm_with_guile', Guile can handle thread registration itself, without
257 needing to make the GC aware of all threads. This oversight has been
260 ** `with-continuation-barrier' now unwinds on `quit'
262 A throw to `quit' in a continuation barrier will cause Guile to exit.
263 Before, it would do so before unwinding to the barrier, which would
264 prevent cleanup handlers from running. This has been fixed so that it
265 exits only after unwinding.
267 ** `string->pointer' and `pointer->string' have optional encoding arg
269 This allows users of the FFI to more easily deal in strings with
270 particular (non-locale) encodings, like "utf-8". See "Void Pointers and
271 Byte Access" in the manual, for more.
273 ** R6RS fixnum arithmetic optimizations
275 R6RS fixnum operations are are still slower than generic arithmetic,
278 ** New procedure: `define-inlinable'
280 See "Inlinable Procedures" in the manual, for more.
282 ** New procedure: `exact-integer-sqrt'
284 See "Integer Operations" in the manual, for more.
286 ** "Extended read syntax" for symbols parses better
288 In #{foo}# symbols, backslashes are now treated as escapes, as the
289 symbol-printing code intended. Additionally, "\x" within #{foo}# is now
290 interpreted as starting an R6RS hex escape. This is backward compatible
291 because the symbol printer would never produce a "\x" before. The
292 printer also works better too.
294 ** Added `--fresh-auto-compile' option
296 This allows a user to invalidate the auto-compilation cache. It's
297 usually not needed. See "Compilation" in the manual, for a discussion.
301 ** GOOPS documentation updates
305 Thanks to Mark Harig for improvements to guile.1.
307 ** SRFI-23 documented
309 The humble `error' SRFI now has an entry in the manual.
313 ** `(ice-9 binary-ports)': "R6RS I/O Ports", in the manual
314 ** `(ice-9 eval-string)': "Fly Evaluation", in the manual
315 ** `(ice-9 command-line)', not documented yet
319 ** Fixed `iconv_t' memory leak on close-port
320 ** Fixed some leaks with weak hash tables
321 ** Export `vhash-delq' and `vhash-delv' from `(ice-9 vlist)'
322 ** `after-gc-hook' works again
323 ** `define-record-type' now allowed in nested contexts
324 ** `exact-integer-sqrt' now handles large integers correctly
325 ** Fixed C extension examples in manual
326 ** `vhash-delete' honors HASH argument
327 ** Make `locale-digit-grouping' more robust
328 ** Default exception printer robustness fixes
329 ** Fix presence of non-I CPPFLAGS in `guile-2.0.pc'
330 ** `read' updates line/column numbers when reading SCSH block comments
331 ** Fix imports of multiple custom interfaces of same module
332 ** Fix encoding scanning for non-seekable ports
333 ** Fix `setter' when called with a non-setter generic
334 ** Fix f32 and f64 bytevectors to not accept rationals
335 ** Fix description of the R6RS `finite?' in manual
336 ** Quotient, remainder and modulo accept inexact integers again
337 ** Fix `continue' within `while' to take zero arguments
338 ** Fix alignment for structures in FFI
339 ** Fix port-filename of stdin, stdout, stderr to match the docs
340 ** Fix weak hash table-related bug in `define-wrapped-pointer-type'
341 ** Fix partial continuation application with pending procedure calls
342 ** scm_{to,from}_locale_string use current locale, not current ports
343 ** Fix thread cleanup, by using a pthread_key destructor
344 ** Fix `quit' at the REPL
345 ** Fix a failure to sync regs in vm bytevector ops
346 ** Fix (texinfo reflection) to handle nested structures like syntax patterns
347 ** Fix stexi->html double translation
348 ** Fix tree-il->scheme fix for <prompt>
349 ** Fix compilation of <prompt> in <fix> in single-value context
350 ** Fix race condition in ensure-writable-dir
351 ** Fix error message on ,disassemble "non-procedure"
352 ** Fix prompt and abort with the boot evaluator
353 ** Fix `procedure->pointer' for functions returning `void'
354 ** Fix error reporting in dynamic-pointer
355 ** Fix problems detecting coding: in block comments
356 ** Fix duplicate load-path and load-compiled-path in compilation environment
357 ** Add fallback read(2) suppport for .go files if mmap(2) unavailable
358 ** Fix c32vector-set!, c64vector-set!
359 ** Fix mistakenly deprecated read syntax for uniform complex vectors
360 ** Fix parsing of exact numbers with negative exponents
361 ** Ignore SIGPIPE in (system repl server)
362 ** Fix optional second arg to R6RS log function
363 ** Fix R6RS `assert' to return true value.
364 ** Fix fencepost error when seeking in bytevector input ports
365 ** Gracefully handle `setlocale' errors when starting the REPL
366 ** Improve support of the `--disable-posix' configure option
367 ** Make sure R6RS binary ports pass `binary-port?' regardless of the locale
368 ** Gracefully handle unterminated UTF-8 sequences instead of hitting an `assert'
372 Changes in 2.0.0 (changes since the 1.8.x series):
374 * New modules (see the manual for details)
376 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
377 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
378 ** `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
379 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
380 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
381 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
382 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
383 ** `(ice-9 futures)', fine-grain parallelism
384 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
385 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
386 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
387 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
388 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
389 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
390 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
391 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
392 ** `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
393 ** `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
394 ** `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
395 ** `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
396 ** `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
397 ** `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
398 ** `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
400 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
402 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
403 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
404 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
406 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
407 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
408 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
410 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
412 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
413 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
414 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
416 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
418 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
419 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
422 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
424 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
426 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
427 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
429 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
431 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
432 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
433 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
435 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
436 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
438 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
439 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
440 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
443 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
445 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
446 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
448 ** Remove old Emacs interface
450 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
451 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
452 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
455 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
457 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
458 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
459 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
462 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
464 ** Command line additions
466 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
467 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
470 ** New reader options: `square-brackets', `r6rs-hex-escapes',
473 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
474 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
475 parentheses. This option is on by default.
477 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
478 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
479 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
480 so this option is off by default.
482 Additionally, Guile follows the R6RS newline escaping rules when the
483 `hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled.
485 See "String Syntax" in the manual, for more information.
487 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
489 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
490 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
491 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
493 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
494 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
496 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
498 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
499 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
500 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
502 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
503 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
504 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
505 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
507 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
508 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
511 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
513 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
516 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
518 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
519 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
520 include `/path/to/lib'.
522 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
524 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
527 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
529 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
530 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
531 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
532 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
535 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
537 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
538 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
539 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
541 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
543 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
544 just for the operator position.
546 ** Expression-oriented readline history
548 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
549 input lines. Let us know what you think!
551 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
553 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
554 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
556 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
558 ** Support for R6RS libraries
560 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
561 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
562 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
563 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
564 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
566 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
568 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
569 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
570 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
572 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
574 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
577 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
578 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
579 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
582 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
583 mentioned in that compatibility list.
585 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
587 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
588 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
589 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
590 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
592 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
593 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
594 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
595 code, and simplifying debugging.
597 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
598 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
600 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
601 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
602 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
603 both of these situations.
605 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
606 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
607 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
608 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
610 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
612 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
613 not apply to the compiler.
615 ** No more `local-eval'
617 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
618 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
619 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
620 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
623 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
624 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
627 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
629 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
630 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
631 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
633 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
634 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
635 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
638 Auto-compiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
639 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
640 will be created if needed.
642 To inhibit automatic compilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
643 variable to 0, or pass --no-auto-compile on the Guile command line.
645 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
647 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
648 in the next prerelease.
650 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
652 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
654 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
656 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
658 ** Multicast socket options
660 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
661 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
664 ** `recv!', `recvfrom!', `send', `sendto' now deal in bytevectors
666 These socket procedures now take bytevectors as arguments, instead of
667 strings. There is some deprecated string support, however.
669 ** New GNU procedures: `setaffinity' and `getaffinity'.
671 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
673 ** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
675 See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
677 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
679 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
680 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
681 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
683 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
684 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
685 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
686 procedures' docstrings for more information.
688 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
689 combining arity and formals. For example:
691 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
692 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
694 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
697 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
699 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
700 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
701 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
702 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
704 ** New language: ECMAScript
706 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
707 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
708 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
709 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
711 ** New language: Brainfuck
713 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
714 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
715 languages. See the manual for details, or
716 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
717 Brainfuck language itself.
719 ** New language: Elisp
721 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
722 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
723 Kraft and Brian Templeton, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
725 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
727 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
728 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
729 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
730 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
733 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
735 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
736 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
737 properties. For example:
743 (procedure-properties foo)
744 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
746 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
749 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
751 (procedure-properties bar)
752 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
754 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
757 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
760 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
762 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
763 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
766 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
767 (define (helper x) ...)
769 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
771 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
774 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
775 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
777 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
779 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
780 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
781 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
783 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
785 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
786 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
787 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
788 for more information.
790 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
792 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
793 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
795 ** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
797 See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
800 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
802 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
803 in the manual, for more information.
805 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
808 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
809 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
811 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
813 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
815 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
817 It is possible to circumvent this restriction with e.g.
818 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. Contact the list if you
821 ** Support for `letrec*'
823 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
824 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
825 manual, for more details.
827 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
829 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
830 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
835 (define baz (+ bar 20))
838 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
839 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
840 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
843 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
844 in earlier Guile dialects.
846 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
848 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
849 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
850 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
851 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
853 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
854 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
855 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
856 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
859 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
861 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
862 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
865 (define (helper x) ...)
866 (define-macro (foo bar)
869 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
872 (define (helper x) ...)
873 (define-macro (foo bar)
874 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
876 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
880 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
882 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
884 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
891 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
892 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
895 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
897 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
898 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
901 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
903 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
904 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
905 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
907 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
909 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
913 (define-macro (ref x) x)
916 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
917 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
918 macros before code that uses them.
920 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
923 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
925 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
926 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
927 (double-literal 2) => 4
929 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
930 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
931 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
933 (eval-when (load compile eval)
934 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
935 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
936 (double-literal 2) => 4
938 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
940 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
942 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
943 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
944 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
945 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
948 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
950 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
951 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
953 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
955 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
956 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
957 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
959 ** Incompatible change to #'
961 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
962 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
963 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
964 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
966 ** `unquote' and `unquote-splicing' accept multiple expressions
968 As per the R6RS, these syntax operators can now accept any number of
969 expressions to unquote.
971 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
973 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
976 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
978 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
979 in the manual, for more information.
981 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
982 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
984 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
985 works (with compiled procedures)
987 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
988 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
989 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
990 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
992 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
993 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
994 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
995 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
996 number of stack frames.
998 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
999 active in the current continuation
1001 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
1002 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
1003 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
1004 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
1006 ** `positions' reader option enabled by default
1008 This change allows primitive-load without --auto-compile to also
1009 propagate source information through the expander, for better errors and
1010 to let macros know their source locations. The compiler was already
1011 turning it on anyway.
1013 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
1015 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
1017 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
1018 through to the expanded code
1020 This should result in better backtraces.
1022 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
1024 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
1026 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
1028 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
1029 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
1032 ** New procedure, `define!'
1034 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
1035 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
1036 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
1037 less verbose than `module-define!'.
1039 ** All modules have names now
1041 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
1042 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
1043 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
1044 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
1046 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
1048 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
1049 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
1050 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
1051 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
1053 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
1054 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
1055 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
1056 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
1057 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
1058 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
1060 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
1061 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
1062 days of Guile's modules.
1064 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
1065 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
1066 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
1067 record accessors appropriately.
1069 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
1070 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
1071 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
1073 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
1074 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
1075 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
1077 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
1078 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
1081 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
1082 namespaces instead of values.
1084 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
1086 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
1087 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
1088 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
1089 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
1091 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
1093 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
1095 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
1097 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
1098 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
1100 ** Modules load within a known environment
1102 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
1103 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
1104 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
1107 ** `load' is a macro (!) that resolves paths relative to source file dir
1109 The familiar Schem `load' procedure is now a macro that captures the
1110 name of the source file being expanded, and dispatches to the new
1111 `load-in-vicinity'. Referencing `load' by bare name returns a closure
1112 that embeds the current source file name.
1114 This fix allows `load' of relative paths to be resolved with respect to
1115 the location of the file that calls `load'.
1117 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
1119 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
1120 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
1121 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
1123 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
1124 values to the expected number
1126 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
1127 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
1128 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
1130 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
1131 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
1132 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
1133 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
1135 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
1136 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
1137 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
1139 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
1142 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
1144 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
1146 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
1147 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
1148 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
1149 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
1150 the interpreter would proceed.
1152 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
1153 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
1154 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
1155 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
1157 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
1159 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
1160 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
1161 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
1162 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
1163 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
1164 you to contact the Guile developers.
1166 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
1168 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
1169 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
1170 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
1172 ** psyntax is now the default expander
1174 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
1175 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
1178 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
1179 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
1180 code in question was memoized.
1182 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
1183 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
1184 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
1185 `x432' instead of `x'.
1187 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
1188 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
1189 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
1190 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
1192 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
1194 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
1195 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
1196 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
1199 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
1200 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
1201 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
1202 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
1204 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
1206 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
1207 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
1208 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
1209 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
1212 (syntax-rules (else)
1213 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
1216 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
1217 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
1218 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
1220 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
1221 by nonhygienic macros.
1223 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
1224 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
1227 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
1228 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
1229 (define-macro (ref x)
1231 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1236 (define-syntax bind-x
1238 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
1239 (define-macro (ref x)
1241 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1243 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
1244 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
1245 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
1246 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
1247 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
1248 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
1250 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
1252 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
1253 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
1255 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
1256 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
1259 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
1261 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
1262 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
1263 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
1264 transformer procedures.
1266 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
1268 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
1269 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
1270 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
1272 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
1274 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
1275 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
1276 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
1277 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
1279 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
1281 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
1282 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
1283 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
1286 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
1288 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
1289 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
1290 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
1291 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
1293 ** New syntax: define-once
1295 `define-once' is like Lisp's `defvar': it creates a toplevel binding,
1296 but only if one does not exist already.
1298 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
1300 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
1301 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
1302 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
1305 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
1306 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
1307 documentation for more details.
1309 ** Better pretty-printing
1311 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
1312 macros like `quote' are printed better.
1314 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
1316 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
1317 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
1319 Also, it used to be that you could omit passing a port to `format', in
1320 some cases. This still works, but has been formally deprecated.
1322 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
1324 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
1325 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
1326 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
1327 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
1328 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1329 addressed by element and not by byte.
1331 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1332 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1333 endianness, as one would expect.
1335 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1336 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1337 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1338 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1341 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1342 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1344 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1345 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1347 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1349 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1351 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1352 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1353 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1355 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1356 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1358 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1360 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1362 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1363 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1365 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1367 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1368 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1371 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1373 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1374 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1376 ** Changes and bugfixes in numerics code
1378 *** Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operators
1380 Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operator pairs with
1381 different semantics than the R5RS operators. They support not only
1382 integers, but all reals, including exact rationals and inexact
1383 floating point numbers.
1385 These procedures accept two real numbers N and D, where the divisor D
1386 must be non-zero. Each set of operators computes an integer quotient
1387 Q and a real remainder R such that N = Q*D + R and |R| < |D|. They
1388 differ only in how N/D is rounded to produce Q.
1390 `euclidean-quotient' returns the integer Q and `euclidean-remainder'
1391 returns the real R such that N = Q*D + R and 0 <= R < |D|. `euclidean/'
1392 returns both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each
1393 separately. Note that when D > 0, `euclidean-quotient' returns
1394 floor(N/D), and when D < 0 it returns ceiling(N/D).
1396 `centered-quotient', `centered-remainder', and `centered/' are similar
1397 except that the range of remainders is -abs(D/2) <= R < abs(D/2), and
1398 `centered-quotient' rounds N/D to the nearest integer. Note that these
1399 operators are equivalent to the R6RS integer division operators `div',
1400 `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', and `div0-and-mod0'.
1402 `floor-quotient' and `floor-remainder' compute Q and R, respectively,
1403 where Q has been rounded toward negative infinity. `floor/' returns
1404 both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each separately.
1405 Note that when applied to integers, `floor-remainder' is equivalent to
1406 the R5RS integer-only `modulo' operator. `ceiling-quotient',
1407 `ceiling-remainder', and `ceiling/' are similar except that Q is
1408 rounded toward positive infinity.
1410 For `truncate-quotient', `truncate-remainder', and `truncate/', Q is
1411 rounded toward zero. Note that when applied to integers,
1412 `truncate-quotient' and `truncate-remainder' are equivalent to the
1413 R5RS integer-only operators `quotient' and `remainder'.
1415 For `round-quotient', `round-remainder', and `round/', Q is rounded to
1416 the nearest integer, with ties going to the nearest even integer.
1418 *** Complex number changes
1420 Guile is now able to represent non-real complex numbers whose
1421 imaginary part is an _inexact_ zero (0.0 or -0.0), per R6RS.
1422 Previously, such numbers were immediately changed into inexact reals.
1424 (real? 0.0+0.0i) now returns #f, per R6RS, although (zero? 0.0+0.0i)
1425 still returns #t, per R6RS. (= 0 0.0+0.0i) and (= 0.0 0.0+0.0i) are
1426 #t, but the same comparisons using `eqv?' or `equal?' are #f.
1428 Like other non-real numbers, these complex numbers with inexact zero
1429 imaginary part will raise exceptions is passed to procedures requiring
1430 reals, such as `<', `>', `<=', `>=', `min', `max', `positive?',
1431 `negative?', `inf?', `nan?', `finite?', etc.
1433 **** `make-rectangular' changes
1435 scm_make_rectangular `make-rectangular' now returns a real number only
1436 if the imaginary part is an _exact_ 0. Previously, it would return a
1437 real number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
1439 scm_c_make_rectangular now always returns a non-real complex number,
1440 even if the imaginary part is zero. Previously, it would return a
1441 real number if the imaginary part was zero.
1443 **** `make-polar' changes
1445 scm_make_polar `make-polar' now returns a real number only if the
1446 angle or magnitude is an _exact_ 0. If the magnitude is an exact 0,
1447 it now returns an exact 0. Previously, it would return a real
1448 number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
1450 scm_c_make_polar now always returns a non-real complex number, even if
1451 the imaginary part is 0.0. Previously, it would return a real number
1452 if the imaginary part was 0.0.
1454 **** `imag-part' changes
1456 scm_imag_part `imag-part' now returns an exact 0 if applied to an
1457 inexact real number. Previously it returned an inexact zero in this
1460 *** `eqv?' and `equal?' now compare numbers equivalently
1462 scm_equal_p `equal?' now behaves equivalently to scm_eqv_p `eqv?' for
1463 numeric values, per R5RS. Previously, equal? worked differently,
1464 e.g. `(equal? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #t but `(eqv? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #f,
1465 and `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f but `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
1468 *** `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' now returns #t
1470 Previously, `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f, although
1471 `(let ((x +nan.0)) (equal? x x))' and `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
1472 both returned #t. R5RS requires that `equal?' behave like
1473 `eqv?' when comparing numbers.
1475 *** Change in handling products `*' involving exact 0
1477 scm_product `*' now handles exact 0 differently. A product containing
1478 an exact 0 now returns an exact 0 if and only if the other arguments
1479 are all exact. An inexact zero is returned if and only if the other
1480 arguments are all finite but not all exact. If an infinite or NaN
1481 value is present, a NaN value is returned. Previously, any product
1482 containing an exact 0 yielded an exact 0, regardless of the other
1485 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
1487 While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, and `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is still
1488 zero, `(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
1489 integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
1490 to be incompatible with R5RS, which would return 0 for all non-zero
1493 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' are more generic, less strict
1495 When raising to an exact non-negative integer exponent, `expt' and
1496 `integer-expt' are now able to exponentiate any object that can be
1497 multiplied using `*'. They can also raise an object to an exact
1498 negative integer power if its reciprocal can be taken using `/'.
1499 In order to allow this, the type of the first argument is no longer
1500 checked when raising to an exact integer power. If the exponent is 0
1501 or 1, the first parameter is not manipulated at all, and need not
1502 even support multiplication.
1504 *** Infinities are no longer integers, nor rationals
1506 scm_integer_p `integer?' and scm_rational_p `rational?' now return #f
1507 for infinities, per R6RS. Previously they returned #t for real
1508 infinities. The real infinities and NaNs are still considered real by
1509 scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
1511 *** NaNs are no longer rationals
1513 scm_rational_p `rational?' now returns #f for NaN values, per R6RS.
1514 Previously it returned #t for real NaN values. They are still
1515 considered real by scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
1517 *** `inf?' and `nan?' now throw exceptions for non-reals
1519 The domain of `inf?' and `nan?' is the real numbers. Guile now signals
1520 an error when a non-real number or non-number is passed to these
1521 procedures. (Note that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite
1524 *** `rationalize' bugfixes and changes
1526 Fixed bugs in scm_rationalize `rationalize'. Previously, it returned
1527 exact integers unmodified, although that was incorrect if the epsilon
1528 was at least 1 or inexact, e.g. (rationalize 4 1) should return 3 per
1529 R5RS and R6RS, but previously it returned 4. It also now handles
1530 cases involving infinities and NaNs properly, per R6RS.
1532 *** Trigonometric functions now return exact numbers in some cases
1534 scm_sin `sin', scm_cos `cos', scm_tan `tan', scm_asin `asin', scm_acos
1535 `acos', scm_atan `atan', scm_sinh `sinh', scm_cosh `cosh', scm_tanh
1536 `tanh', scm_sys_asinh `asinh', scm_sys_acosh `acosh', and
1537 scm_sys_atanh `atanh' now return exact results in some cases.
1539 *** New procedure: `finite?'
1541 Add scm_finite_p `finite?' from R6RS to guile core, which returns #t
1542 if and only if its argument is neither infinite nor a NaN. Note that
1543 this is not the same as (not (inf? x)) or (not (infinite? x)), since
1544 NaNs are neither finite nor infinite.
1546 *** Improved exactness handling for complex number parsing
1548 When parsing non-real complex numbers, exactness specifiers are now
1549 applied to each component, as is done in PLT Scheme. For complex
1550 numbers written in rectangular form, exactness specifiers are applied
1551 to the real and imaginary parts before calling scm_make_rectangular.
1552 For complex numbers written in polar form, exactness specifiers are
1553 applied to the magnitude and angle before calling scm_make_polar.
1555 Previously, exactness specifiers were applied to the number as a whole
1556 _after_ calling scm_make_rectangular or scm_make_polar.
1558 For example, (string->number "#i5.0+0i") now does the equivalent of:
1560 (make-rectangular (exact->inexact 5.0) (exact->inexact 0))
1562 which yields 5.0+0.0i. Previously it did the equivalent of:
1564 (exact->inexact (make-rectangular 5.0 0))
1568 ** Unicode characters
1570 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1571 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1572 probably be introduced at some point.
1576 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1577 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1578 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1580 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1581 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1582 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1583 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1587 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1589 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1591 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1592 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1593 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1594 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1595 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1598 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1599 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1600 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1602 ** Source files default to UTF-8.
1604 If source files do not specify their encoding via a `coding:' block,
1605 the default encoding is UTF-8, instead of being taken from the current
1608 ** Interactive Guile installs the current locale.
1610 Instead of leaving the user in the "C" locale, running the Guile REPL
1611 installs the current locale. [FIXME xref?]
1613 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1615 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1616 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1617 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1620 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1621 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1622 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1624 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1626 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1628 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1629 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1630 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1631 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1633 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1635 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1636 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1637 Unicode code points.
1639 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1641 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1642 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1643 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1646 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1648 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1649 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1650 and was unmaintained.
1652 ** Compile-time warnings
1654 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1655 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1656 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1657 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1660 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1661 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1662 `#:warnings' as above.
1664 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1665 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1666 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1668 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1670 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1673 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1675 This slightly improves program startup times.
1677 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1679 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1681 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1683 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1684 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1685 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1686 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1688 ** New helpers: `print-exception', `set-exception-printer!'
1690 These functions implement an extensible exception printer. Guile
1691 registers printers for all of the exceptions it throws. Users may add
1692 their own printers. There is also `scm_print_exception', for use by C
1693 programs. Pleasantly, this allows SRFI-35 and R6RS exceptions to be
1694 printed appropriately.
1696 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1698 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1699 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1700 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1701 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1703 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1704 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1705 implement method combinations.
1707 ** Applicable struct support
1709 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1710 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1711 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1712 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1713 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1714 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1715 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1716 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1720 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1721 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1722 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1723 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1724 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1726 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1728 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1729 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1730 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1731 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1733 ** eqv? not a generic
1735 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1736 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1737 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1738 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1740 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1742 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1743 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1744 functions are deprecated.
1746 ** `getopt-long' parsing errors throw to `quit', not `misc-error'
1748 This change should inhibit backtraces on argument parsing errors.
1749 `getopt-long' has been modified to print out the error that it throws
1752 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1754 See "File System" in the manual.
1756 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1758 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1759 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1760 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1762 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1764 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1765 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1766 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1768 ** Fast bit operations.
1770 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1771 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1772 it's for number crunching too.
1774 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1776 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1777 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1778 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1779 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1781 ** R6RS block comment support
1783 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1784 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1786 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1788 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1789 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1791 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1792 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1793 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1795 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1796 ;; separate compilation phase.
1797 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1799 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1801 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1803 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1805 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1806 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1807 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1808 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1809 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1812 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1813 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1814 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1815 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1816 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1818 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1820 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1822 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1824 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1826 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1828 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1830 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1831 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1832 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1834 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1836 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1837 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1839 ** New readline history functions
1841 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1842 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1843 History library functions.
1845 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1846 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1848 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1851 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1853 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1854 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1855 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1856 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1857 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1858 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1859 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1861 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1862 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1864 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1865 `before-signal-stack'.
1867 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1868 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1869 a deprecation warning.
1871 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1873 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1874 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1875 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1876 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1879 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1881 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1882 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1883 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1884 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1886 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1887 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1889 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1891 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1892 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1893 left in the default environment.
1895 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1897 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1898 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1899 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1900 information for the error.
1902 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1904 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1905 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1906 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1908 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
1910 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
1911 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
1913 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
1915 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
1918 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
1920 ** Remove obsolete print-options
1922 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
1925 ** Remove obsolete read-options
1927 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
1928 obsolete, so they have been removed.
1930 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
1932 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
1935 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
1937 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
1938 on their replacements.
1940 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
1942 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
1943 should use Guile with Emacs.
1945 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1947 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1948 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1949 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1950 `with-throw-handler'.
1952 ** Deprecated: primitive properties
1954 The `primitive-make-property', `primitive-property-set!',
1955 `primitive-property-ref', and `primitive-property-del!' procedures were
1956 crufty and only used to implement object properties, which has a new,
1957 threadsafe implementation. Use object properties or weak hash tables
1960 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1962 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1963 and is no longer used.
1965 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1967 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
1968 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
1970 Additionally, the procedures `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1971 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1972 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', and `set-batch-mode?!' have all
1975 ** Add support for unbound fluids
1977 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
1980 ** Add `variable-unset!'
1982 See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
1984 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1986 * Changes to the C interface
1988 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1990 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1991 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1992 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1994 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1995 code easier and less error-prone.
1997 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
1998 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,latin1}_symbol{n,}
1999 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,utf32,latin1}_string{n,}
2001 These new procedures convert to and from string representations in
2002 particular encodings.
2004 Users should continue to use locale encoding for user input, user
2005 output, or interacting with the C library.
2007 Use the Latin-1 functions for ASCII, and for literals in source code.
2009 Use UTF-8 functions for interaction with modern libraries which deal in
2010 UTF-8, and UTF-32 for interaction with utf32-using libraries.
2012 Otherwise, use scm_to_stringn or scm_from_stringn with a specific
2015 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
2017 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
2018 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
2019 available to C. Have fun!
2021 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
2023 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
2025 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
2028 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
2029 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
2031 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
2033 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
2034 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
2035 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
2038 ** Remove old evaluator closures
2040 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
2041 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
2042 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
2043 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
2046 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
2048 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
2049 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
2050 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
2051 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
2052 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
2053 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
2055 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
2056 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
2057 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
2058 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
2059 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
2060 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
2062 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
2063 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
2064 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
2065 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
2066 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
2068 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
2069 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
2070 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
2071 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
2072 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
2073 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
2075 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
2076 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
2077 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
2078 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
2081 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
2082 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
2085 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
2087 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
2088 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
2089 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
2090 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
2091 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
2093 ** Remove unused snarf macros
2095 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
2096 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
2098 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
2100 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
2101 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
2103 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
2105 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
2106 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
2108 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
2110 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
2111 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
2112 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
2113 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
2114 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
2117 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
2119 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
2120 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
2121 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
2122 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
2125 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
2126 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
2127 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
2128 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
2130 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
2132 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
2133 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
2134 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
2137 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
2138 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
2139 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
2140 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
2142 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
2144 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
2146 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
2148 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
2151 ** Inline vector allocation
2153 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
2154 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
2155 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
2156 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
2159 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
2161 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
2162 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
2166 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
2167 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
2168 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
2169 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
2170 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
2172 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
2174 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
2175 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
2176 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
2177 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
2178 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
2179 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
2183 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
2184 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
2185 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
2186 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
2188 ** Deprecate trampolines
2190 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
2191 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
2192 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
2193 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
2194 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
2196 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
2198 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
2200 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
2202 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
2203 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
2204 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
2205 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
2207 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
2209 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
2210 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
2211 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
2212 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
2213 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
2214 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
2215 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
2217 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
2219 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
2220 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
2223 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
2224 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
2226 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
2228 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
2229 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
2231 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
2233 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
2234 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
2235 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
2236 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
2238 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
2240 * Changes to the distribution
2242 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
2244 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
2245 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
2250 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
2251 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
2253 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
2255 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
2256 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
2258 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
2260 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
2261 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
2262 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
2265 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
2267 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
2268 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
2270 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
2272 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
2273 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
2275 ** Parallel installability fixes
2277 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
2278 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
2279 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
2281 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
2282 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
2283 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
2286 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
2288 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
2289 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
2290 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
2291 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
2292 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
2294 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
2296 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
2297 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
2298 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
2299 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
2300 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
2301 searched before the global site directory.
2303 ** New dependency: libgc
2305 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
2307 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
2309 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
2310 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
2312 ** New dependency: libffi
2314 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
2318 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
2322 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
2323 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
2324 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
2327 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
2329 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2331 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
2335 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
2336 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
2337 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
2338 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
2339 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
2340 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
2341 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
2342 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
2343 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
2344 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
2345 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
2347 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
2349 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
2350 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
2351 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
2354 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
2357 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
2359 * New features (see the manual for details)
2361 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
2363 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
2365 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
2366 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
2367 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
2369 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
2371 * Changes to the distribution
2373 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
2375 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
2376 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
2378 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
2380 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
2381 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
2386 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
2387 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
2388 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
2389 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
2390 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
2391 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
2392 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
2393 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
2394 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
2395 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
2396 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
2397 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
2398 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
2399 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
2401 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
2402 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
2403 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
2404 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
2405 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
2408 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
2410 * Infrastructure changes
2412 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
2414 The new repository can be accessed using
2415 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
2416 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
2418 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
2420 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
2422 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2426 * New features (see the manual for details)
2428 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
2429 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
2430 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
2432 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
2433 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
2434 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
2435 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
2437 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
2439 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
2440 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
2441 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
2445 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
2446 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
2448 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
2449 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
2451 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
2452 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
2454 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
2455 lead to a stack overflow.
2457 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
2458 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
2459 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
2460 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
2461 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
2462 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
2463 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
2464 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
2465 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
2466 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
2467 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
2468 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
2469 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
2470 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
2471 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
2472 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
2475 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
2479 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
2480 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
2481 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
2482 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
2483 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
2484 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
2485 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
2486 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
2487 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
2488 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
2489 system and library calls.
2490 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
2491 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
2492 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
2493 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
2494 uniform vectors on AIX.
2495 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
2496 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
2497 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
2498 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
2499 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
2501 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2505 * Documentation fixes and improvements
2507 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
2509 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
2510 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
2512 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
2514 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
2516 * Changes to the distribution
2518 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
2520 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
2521 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
2522 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
2524 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
2526 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
2529 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
2531 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2538 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
2539 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
2540 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
2541 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
2542 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
2543 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
2544 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
2546 * Implementation improvements
2548 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
2549 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
2552 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
2554 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2556 ** set-program-arguments
2559 * Incompatible changes
2561 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
2563 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
2564 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
2565 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
2566 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
2571 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
2572 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
2573 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
2574 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
2575 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
2576 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
2578 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
2579 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
2580 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
2581 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
2582 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
2583 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
2584 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2585 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2586 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2587 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2588 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2589 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2590 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2591 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2592 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2593 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2596 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2598 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2600 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2602 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2603 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2604 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2605 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2606 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2607 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2615 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2617 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2619 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2621 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2623 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2625 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2627 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2628 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2629 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2631 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2633 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2635 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2636 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2638 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2640 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2641 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2643 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2645 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2647 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2649 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2651 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2653 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2655 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2657 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2659 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2661 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2662 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2663 file was on a different device.
2666 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2668 * Changes to the distribution
2670 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2672 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2674 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2676 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2678 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2680 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2683 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2685 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2686 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2687 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2688 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2689 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2690 items like the versioned share directory name
2691 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2693 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2694 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2695 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2696 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2697 with each micro release during a stable series.
2699 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2701 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2702 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2703 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2704 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2705 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2708 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2709 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2710 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2711 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2714 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2715 in which case "null" threads are used.
2717 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2718 "Blocking", and others.
2720 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2722 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2724 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2725 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2726 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2727 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2728 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2730 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2731 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2733 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2735 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2736 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2738 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2741 This SRFI is always available.
2743 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2745 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2746 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2747 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2748 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2751 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2753 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2754 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2755 parameters without currying.
2757 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2759 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2760 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2762 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2763 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2766 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2767 with a renaming import, for example.
2769 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2771 The official version is good enough now.
2773 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2775 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2776 provided. Use 'make html'.
2778 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2780 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2781 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2782 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2783 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2785 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2787 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2790 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2792 ** New command line option `-L'.
2794 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2796 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2798 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2799 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2801 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2803 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2804 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2806 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2808 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2809 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2812 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2815 (define-module (demo)
2819 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2822 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2824 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2826 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2827 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2828 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2830 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2832 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2833 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2835 ** New function hashx-remove!
2837 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2839 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2840 barriers and dynamic states.
2842 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2843 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2844 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2847 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2848 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2849 Barriers" in the manual.
2851 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2852 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2854 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2856 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2857 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2858 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2859 variable %load-path.
2861 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2863 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2864 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2866 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2867 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2868 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2870 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2871 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2873 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2874 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2875 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2877 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2878 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2879 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2882 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2883 substrings and read-only strings.
2885 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2886 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2889 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2891 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2900 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2901 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2902 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2904 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2905 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2906 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2907 on an ANSI terminal:
2909 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2910 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2913 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2915 See the manual for details.
2917 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2919 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2922 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2924 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2925 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2926 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2927 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2929 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2930 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2931 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2934 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2936 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2937 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2948 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2952 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2957 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2961 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2965 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2968 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2969 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2970 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2971 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2973 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2974 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2977 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2980 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2984 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2986 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2987 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2988 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2991 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2994 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2996 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2999 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
3000 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
3003 (define-module (foo)
3008 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
3009 has been detected is to
3011 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
3012 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
3013 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
3016 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
3019 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
3021 to your .guile init file.
3023 ** New define-module option: :replace
3025 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
3028 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
3029 for the core binding `format'.
3031 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
3033 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
3034 a prefix to all imported bindings.
3036 (define-module (foo)
3037 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
3039 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
3042 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
3044 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
3045 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
3046 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
3048 ** New function: effective-version
3050 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3051 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3052 to the distribution" above.
3054 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
3056 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
3057 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
3059 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
3061 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
3062 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
3064 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
3066 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
3067 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
3070 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
3072 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
3074 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
3076 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
3077 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
3078 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
3081 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
3082 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
3083 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
3084 'system-async-mark'.
3086 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
3087 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
3089 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
3090 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
3091 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
3094 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
3096 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
3097 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
3100 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
3101 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
3103 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
3104 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
3105 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
3106 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
3107 level for the current thread.
3109 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
3111 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
3113 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
3114 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
3117 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
3119 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
3121 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
3124 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
3126 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
3129 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
3130 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
3131 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
3133 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
3134 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
3135 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
3136 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
3147 ERROR: Numerical overflow
3149 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
3152 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
3154 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
3155 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
3156 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
3167 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
3169 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
3170 them is also done exactly, of course:
3175 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
3176 for exact arguments.
3178 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
3179 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
3181 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
3183 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
3184 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
3185 equal to a floating point number. For example:
3187 (inexact->exact 1.234)
3188 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
3190 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
3192 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
3195 ** New function 'rationalize'.
3197 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
3198 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
3200 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
3203 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
3204 result when both its arguments are exact.
3206 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
3208 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
3209 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
3210 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
3212 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
3214 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
3215 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
3216 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
3218 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
3221 ** pretty-print has more options.
3223 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
3224 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
3225 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
3227 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
3229 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
3230 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
3231 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
3233 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
3235 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
3236 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
3238 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
3240 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
3241 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
3244 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
3246 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
3247 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
3248 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
3249 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
3250 without the soft port blocking.
3252 ** Deprecated: undefine
3254 There is no replacement for undefine.
3256 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
3257 have been discouraged.
3259 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
3260 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
3261 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
3264 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
3266 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
3268 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
3269 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
3270 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
3271 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
3274 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
3275 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
3276 be removed in the next major Guile release.
3278 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
3280 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
3281 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
3282 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
3283 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
3284 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
3285 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
3287 * Changes to the C interface
3289 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
3290 take a 'delete' function argument.
3292 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
3293 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
3295 This is an incompatible change.
3297 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
3299 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
3300 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
3301 --disable-deprecated.
3303 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
3305 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
3306 Scheme values has been added.
3308 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
3309 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
3312 - int scm_is_* (...)
3314 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
3315 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
3317 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
3319 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
3320 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
3323 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
3325 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
3326 scm_from_int for ints.
3328 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
3329 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
3330 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
3332 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
3334 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
3335 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
3336 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
3339 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
3341 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
3343 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
3345 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
3346 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
3347 following alternatives.
3349 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
3350 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
3351 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
3352 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
3354 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
3355 do the validating for you.
3357 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
3358 have been discouraged.
3360 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
3361 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
3364 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
3366 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
3367 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
3370 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
3372 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
3375 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
3378 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
3380 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
3381 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
3383 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
3384 scm_truncate_number should have.
3386 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
3387 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
3389 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
3392 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
3393 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
3394 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
3396 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
3397 easier to use from C.
3399 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
3400 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
3402 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
3403 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
3404 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
3407 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
3408 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
3409 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
3410 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
3413 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
3414 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
3415 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
3416 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
3417 and is thus quite efficient.
3419 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
3421 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
3422 about the character encoding.
3424 Replace according to the following table:
3426 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
3427 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
3428 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
3429 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
3430 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
3431 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
3432 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
3433 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
3434 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
3436 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
3437 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
3439 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
3441 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
3442 now also available to C code.
3444 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
3446 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
3447 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
3448 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
3450 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
3453 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
3455 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
3456 unceremoniously removed.
3458 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
3459 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
3460 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
3462 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
3463 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
3464 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3465 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3466 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
3467 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
3470 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
3472 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
3473 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
3474 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
3475 manual for more details.
3477 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3478 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3480 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
3481 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
3482 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3484 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
3486 Migrate according to the following table:
3488 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
3489 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
3490 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
3491 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
3492 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
3493 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
3494 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
3496 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
3497 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
3498 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
3499 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
3500 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
3501 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
3502 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
3504 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
3506 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
3507 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
3509 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
3510 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
3511 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
3512 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
3514 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
3516 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
3517 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
3518 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
3520 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
3521 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
3523 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
3524 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
3525 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
3526 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
3528 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
3530 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
3531 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
3532 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
3533 prevent a potential memory leak:
3540 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
3542 mem = scm_malloc (100);
3543 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
3545 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
3546 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
3553 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
3554 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
3558 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
3560 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
3562 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
3563 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
3564 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
3566 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3567 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
3569 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
3571 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
3573 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
3574 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
3575 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
3577 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
3578 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
3580 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
3581 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
3582 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
3583 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3586 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3588 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3589 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3590 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3592 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3594 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3595 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3597 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3599 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3600 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3602 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3604 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3605 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3606 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3608 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3610 You should not have used them.
3612 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3614 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3615 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3617 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3619 This macro is not intended for public use.
3621 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3623 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3625 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3627 Use scm_is_real instead.
3629 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3631 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3633 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3635 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3636 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3638 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3639 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3641 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3642 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3644 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3646 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3649 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3651 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3652 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3653 to the distribution" above.
3655 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3657 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3658 arguments are now passed directly:
3660 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3662 This is an incompatible change.
3664 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3666 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3667 function in the init section.
3669 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3671 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3673 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3674 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3675 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3676 stays roughly constant.
3678 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3679 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3680 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3681 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3682 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3685 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3686 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3687 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3688 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3690 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3691 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3692 objects for every type.
3695 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3697 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3699 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3701 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3702 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3703 initializes a new cell (see below).
3705 ** New functions for memory management
3707 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3708 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3709 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3710 cause aborts in long running programs.
3712 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3713 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3715 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3716 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3717 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3718 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3719 details and for upgrading instructions.
3721 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3722 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3723 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3725 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3727 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3728 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3729 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3730 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3731 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3733 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3734 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3735 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3737 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3738 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3740 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3742 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3743 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3744 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3745 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3746 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3748 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3750 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3753 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3755 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3757 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3759 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3760 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3762 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3764 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3765 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3767 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3768 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3770 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3772 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3774 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3775 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3776 blocking it is not well defined.
3778 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3780 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3781 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3782 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3783 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3784 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3785 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3786 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3787 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3788 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3789 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3790 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3791 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3792 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3793 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3794 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3795 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3796 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3797 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3798 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3799 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3800 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3801 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3802 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3803 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3804 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3805 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3806 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3807 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3808 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3809 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3810 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3812 * Changes to bundled modules
3816 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3817 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3818 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3819 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3820 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3823 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3825 * Changes to the distribution
3827 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3829 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3831 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3832 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3833 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3834 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3835 indicate major changes in Guile.
3837 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3838 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3839 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3840 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3842 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3843 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3844 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3845 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3846 micro version number.
3848 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3850 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3852 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3853 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3855 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3857 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3858 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3859 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3861 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3863 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3864 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3865 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3868 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3870 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3873 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3875 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3876 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3878 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3880 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3881 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3884 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3886 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3889 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3892 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3894 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3896 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3897 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3898 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3900 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3902 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3904 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3907 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3909 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3911 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3913 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3914 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3915 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3917 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3919 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3921 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3922 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3931 See README there for more info.
3933 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3934 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3937 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3939 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3941 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3943 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3944 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3945 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3947 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3949 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3950 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3951 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3953 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3954 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3956 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3959 (oop goops describe)
3961 (oop goops active-slot)
3962 (oop goops composite-slot)
3964 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3965 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3966 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3968 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3970 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3971 in the default environment:
3973 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3974 %read-line write-line
3976 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3977 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3979 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3981 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3984 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3985 can be used for similar functionality.
3987 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3989 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3990 it defines two procedures:
3992 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3994 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3995 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3996 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3999 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
4001 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
4002 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
4003 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
4004 write large strings.
4006 ** New module (ice-9 match)
4008 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
4009 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
4011 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
4013 for complete documentation.
4015 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
4017 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
4018 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
4019 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
4020 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
4022 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
4023 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
4027 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
4028 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
4029 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
4032 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
4035 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
4036 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
4038 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
4039 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
4042 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
4045 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
4047 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
4049 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4051 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
4053 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
4054 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
4055 Scheme programs easier.
4057 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
4058 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
4059 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
4060 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
4061 `cond-expand' when using this option.
4064 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
4065 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
4067 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
4070 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
4072 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
4073 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
4074 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
4077 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4079 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
4081 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
4082 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
4083 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
4084 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
4085 was also ASCII, for example.
4087 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
4089 tag - no replacement.
4090 fseek - replaced by seek.
4091 list* - replaced by cons*.
4093 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
4097 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
4098 (define m (make-safe-module))
4099 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
4100 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
4101 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
4103 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
4105 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
4106 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
4107 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
4109 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
4111 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
4112 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
4113 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
4114 from the issues related to the module system.
4116 *** New function: load-extension
4118 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
4120 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
4122 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
4123 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
4124 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
4126 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
4128 This function registers a initialization function for use by
4129 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
4130 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
4131 support dynamic linking).
4133 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
4135 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
4136 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
4137 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
4138 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
4141 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
4142 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
4143 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
4144 library and initialize it explicitly.
4146 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
4147 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
4149 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
4151 (define-module (foo bar))
4153 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
4155 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
4157 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
4158 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
4160 (scheme-report-environment 5)
4161 (null-environment 5)
4162 (interaction-environment)
4168 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
4170 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
4171 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
4172 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
4173 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
4175 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
4176 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
4177 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
4178 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
4179 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
4180 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
4181 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
4182 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
4183 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
4184 one eval to the next.
4186 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
4187 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
4188 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
4189 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
4190 subforms are at the top-level as well.
4192 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
4193 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
4194 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
4195 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
4196 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
4197 used in a lexical environment.
4199 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
4200 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
4201 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
4202 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
4203 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
4204 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
4206 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
4208 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
4209 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
4210 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
4211 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
4212 new facilities: selection and renaming.
4214 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
4215 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
4216 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
4218 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
4219 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
4221 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
4222 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
4223 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4225 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4226 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
4228 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
4229 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
4230 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
4231 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
4234 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
4235 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
4236 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
4237 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4239 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4240 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
4241 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
4243 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
4244 ;; and all four by upcasing.
4245 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
4246 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
4247 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
4249 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4251 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4252 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
4253 :renamer upcase-symbol))
4255 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
4256 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
4257 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
4259 See manual for more info.
4261 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
4263 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
4264 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
4265 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
4267 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
4269 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
4270 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
4271 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
4273 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
4274 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
4275 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
4276 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
4278 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
4280 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
4281 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
4283 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
4284 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
4285 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
4286 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
4287 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
4290 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
4291 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
4292 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
4293 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
4294 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
4295 successful and #f if it wasn't.
4297 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
4298 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
4299 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
4300 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
4301 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
4303 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
4304 objects are usually permanent.
4306 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
4307 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
4309 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
4311 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
4312 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
4315 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
4319 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
4324 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
4326 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
4327 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
4328 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
4329 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
4331 ** New function `make-object-property'
4333 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
4334 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
4338 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
4339 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
4343 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
4344 source properties eventually.
4346 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
4348 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
4349 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
4350 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
4352 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
4353 will be removed in the next release.
4355 ** New define-module option: pure
4357 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
4362 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
4365 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
4367 Export names NAME1 ...
4369 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
4370 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
4374 (define-module (foo)
4376 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
4379 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
4384 ** New function: object->string OBJ
4386 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
4388 ** New function: port? X
4390 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
4391 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
4393 ** New function: file-port?
4395 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
4397 ** New function: port-for-each proc
4399 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
4400 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
4401 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
4402 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
4403 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
4405 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
4407 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
4408 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
4409 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
4410 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
4411 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
4414 ** New function: close-fdes fd
4416 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
4417 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
4418 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
4419 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
4422 ** New function: crypt password salt
4424 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
4427 ** New function: chroot path
4429 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
4431 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
4433 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
4436 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
4438 Get or set the priority of the running process.
4440 ** New function: getpass prompt
4442 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
4445 ** New function: flock file operation
4447 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
4449 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
4451 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
4454 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
4456 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
4457 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
4458 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
4459 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
4460 of the temporary file.
4462 ** New function: open-input-string string
4464 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
4465 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
4466 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
4468 ** New function: open-output-string
4470 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
4471 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
4473 ** New function: get-output-string
4475 Return the contents of an output string port.
4477 ** New function: identity
4479 Return the argument.
4481 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
4482 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
4484 ** New function: inet-pton family address
4486 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
4487 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
4488 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4491 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
4492 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
4494 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
4496 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
4497 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
4498 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4501 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
4502 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
4503 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
4507 Use `identity' instead.
4513 ** Deprecated: return-it
4517 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
4519 Use `string-length' instead.
4521 ** Deprecated: flags
4523 Use `logior' instead.
4525 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
4527 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
4528 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
4529 port-for-each is more flexible.
4531 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
4532 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
4533 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
4535 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
4537 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
4539 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
4541 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
4543 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
4545 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
4546 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
4548 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
4549 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
4551 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
4552 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
4554 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
4556 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
4557 Removed function: builtin-bindings
4559 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
4560 Use module system operations for all variables.
4562 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
4564 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
4567 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
4569 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
4570 The following bugs have been fixed:
4572 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
4573 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
4576 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
4577 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
4578 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
4580 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
4581 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
4583 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
4584 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4587 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4588 The expansion used to be like so:
4590 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4592 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4594 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4596 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4597 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4599 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4601 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4602 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4603 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4607 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4608 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4610 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4615 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4616 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4618 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4619 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4620 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4622 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4625 * Changes to the C interface
4627 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4629 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4630 with "_t". What a concept.
4632 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4634 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4636 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4640 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4641 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4643 *** C Functions removed
4645 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4646 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4647 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4648 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4649 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4650 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4651 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4653 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4655 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4657 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4659 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4661 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4662 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4664 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4666 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4669 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4671 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4673 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4675 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4676 Evaluation" in the manual.
4678 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4680 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4681 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4683 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4685 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4686 Constructors" in the manual.
4688 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4690 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4691 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4693 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4695 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4697 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4698 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4699 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4701 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4703 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4705 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4706 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4707 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4710 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4712 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4714 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4715 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4717 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4719 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4720 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4721 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4722 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4724 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4725 scm_primitive_property_ref
4726 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4727 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4729 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4730 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4732 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4734 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4735 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4736 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4737 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4739 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4741 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4742 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4743 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4744 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4745 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4746 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4747 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4749 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4750 scm_remember_upto_here
4752 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4754 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4756 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4757 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4759 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4761 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4763 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4765 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4767 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4769 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4770 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4771 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4772 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4773 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4774 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4776 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4778 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4780 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4781 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4782 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4784 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4786 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4787 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4788 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4790 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4792 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4793 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4796 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4799 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4800 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4803 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4805 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4807 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4809 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4811 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4813 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4815 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4816 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4817 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4818 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4819 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4820 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4821 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4822 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4823 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4824 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4825 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4826 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4827 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4828 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4829 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4831 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4832 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4833 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4834 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4835 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4836 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4837 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4838 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4839 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4840 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4841 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4842 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4843 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4844 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4845 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4846 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4847 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4848 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4849 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4850 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4851 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4852 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4853 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4854 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4855 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4856 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4857 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4858 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4859 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4861 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4863 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4865 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4866 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4868 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4870 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4872 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4874 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4876 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4878 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4880 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4882 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4884 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4887 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4888 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4890 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4892 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4894 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4896 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4898 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4900 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4902 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4904 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4907 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4909 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4911 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4913 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4914 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4916 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4917 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4919 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4921 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4922 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4923 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4925 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4927 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4929 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4930 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4932 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4933 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4934 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4935 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4937 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4938 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4939 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4941 Use the new ones from above instead.
4943 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4945 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4946 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4947 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4949 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4950 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4952 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4953 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4956 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4957 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4959 Use the new functions instead.
4961 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4964 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4966 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4968 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4971 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4973 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4976 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4978 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4981 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4982 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4983 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4985 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4987 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4988 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4990 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4991 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4992 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4993 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4996 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4998 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4999 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
5000 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
5001 inexact for an exact.
5003 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
5004 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
5005 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
5008 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
5009 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
5010 accept an inexact argument.
5012 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
5013 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
5015 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
5018 ** New number validation macros:
5019 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
5023 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
5025 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
5026 scm_unprotect_object.
5028 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
5030 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
5032 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
5035 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
5037 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
5041 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
5043 * Changes to the distribution
5045 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
5047 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
5048 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
5049 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
5050 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
5051 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
5052 obtain these programs.
5053 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
5054 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
5056 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
5057 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
5058 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
5059 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
5060 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
5062 However, this approach means that minor differences between
5063 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
5064 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
5065 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
5069 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
5072 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
5073 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
5074 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
5075 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
5077 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
5079 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
5081 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
5082 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
5084 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
5085 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
5087 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
5088 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
5090 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
5091 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
5092 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
5093 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
5095 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
5097 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
5101 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
5102 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
5104 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
5106 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
5107 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
5109 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
5110 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
5111 number of objects of that kind.
5113 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
5115 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
5116 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
5117 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
5118 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
5119 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
5121 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
5123 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
5125 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
5127 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
5130 ** New module (ice-9 time)
5132 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
5134 ** New module (ice-9 history)
5136 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
5138 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5140 ** New command line option --debug
5142 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
5144 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
5146 ** New help facility
5148 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
5149 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
5150 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
5151 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
5152 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
5153 (help) gives this text
5155 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
5156 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
5158 Examples: (help help)
5160 (help "output-string")
5162 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
5164 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
5166 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
5167 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
5170 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
5171 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
5172 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
5175 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
5176 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
5177 use absolute filenames when possible.
5179 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
5180 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
5181 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
5184 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
5186 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
5187 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
5188 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
5189 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
5191 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
5193 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
5195 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
5196 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
5197 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
5199 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
5200 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
5201 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
5203 (read-enable 'positions)
5204 (debug-enable 'debug)
5206 ** Backtraces in scripts
5208 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
5212 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
5214 at the top of the script.
5216 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
5217 The second enables backtraces.)
5219 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
5221 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
5222 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
5223 substantially faster than before.
5225 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
5226 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
5228 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
5229 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
5231 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
5233 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
5234 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
5235 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
5237 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
5238 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
5239 when this hook is run in the future.
5241 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
5242 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
5244 ** Improvements to garbage collector
5246 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
5247 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
5250 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
5251 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
5252 more and more memory for certain programs.)
5254 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
5255 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
5257 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
5258 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
5260 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
5261 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
5262 in order not to need further allocation.)
5264 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
5267 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
5268 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
5269 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
5270 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
5272 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
5274 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
5277 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
5279 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
5282 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
5283 GC in percent of total heap size
5286 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
5287 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
5289 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
5291 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
5292 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
5294 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
5296 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
5297 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
5299 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
5301 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
5302 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
5306 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
5307 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
5309 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
5311 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5313 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
5315 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
5317 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
5319 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
5320 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
5322 (simple-format port message . args)
5323 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
5324 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
5325 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
5326 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
5327 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
5328 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
5329 Does not add a trailing newline."
5331 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
5333 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
5334 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
5336 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
5337 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
5339 ** Deprecated: list*
5341 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
5343 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
5345 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
5346 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
5348 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
5349 is returned as result.
5351 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
5353 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
5355 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
5357 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
5358 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
5361 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
5363 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
5365 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
5366 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
5368 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5370 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
5372 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
5374 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5376 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
5378 Thanks to Greg Badros!
5380 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5382 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5383 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
5384 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
5386 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
5389 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
5391 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
5392 the readability of argument checking.
5394 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
5396 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
5398 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
5400 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
5401 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
5402 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
5403 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
5404 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
5405 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
5406 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
5408 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
5410 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
5412 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
5413 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
5415 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
5417 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
5418 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
5421 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
5423 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
5424 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
5425 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
5427 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
5428 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
5429 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
5431 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
5432 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
5433 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
5434 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
5435 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
5436 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
5437 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
5439 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
5440 scm_end_input (object);
5441 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
5442 ptob->flush (object);
5444 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
5445 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
5448 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
5450 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
5452 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
5453 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
5454 removed in a future version.
5456 ** The format of error message strings has changed
5458 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
5459 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
5460 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
5461 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
5463 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
5464 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
5466 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
5469 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
5471 in your configure.in.
5473 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
5478 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
5484 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
5486 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
5490 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
5491 (define make-message string-append)
5493 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
5495 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
5499 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
5504 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
5508 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
5510 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
5511 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
5513 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
5515 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
5516 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
5517 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
5518 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
5519 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
5520 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
5522 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
5523 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
5524 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
5526 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
5527 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
5528 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
5531 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
5532 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
5533 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
5534 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
5535 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
5537 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
5538 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
5539 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
5540 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
5541 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
5542 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
5543 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
5545 Destructors are not yet implemented.
5547 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
5548 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
5549 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
5551 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
5552 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
5553 KEY in the calling thread.
5555 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
5556 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
5557 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
5558 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
5559 associated with the key.
5561 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
5563 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
5564 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
5566 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
5568 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
5569 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
5570 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
5572 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
5574 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
5575 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
5577 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
5579 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
5581 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
5582 returned is undefined.
5584 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5585 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5586 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5588 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5589 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5590 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5592 ** New C level GC hooks
5594 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5596 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5599 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5600 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5601 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5603 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5604 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5605 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5607 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5608 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5611 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5613 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5614 allocation parameters
5616 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5617 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5618 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5622 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5623 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5624 scm_default_max_segment_size
5626 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5628 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5629 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5631 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5633 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5634 object and count on the object being protected until
5635 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5637 The functions also have better time complexity.
5639 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5640 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5641 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5642 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5643 are no longer needed.
5645 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5647 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5648 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5649 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5650 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5652 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5654 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5656 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5658 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5659 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5660 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5661 until this issue has been settled.
5663 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5665 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5667 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5670 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5672 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5674 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5675 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5676 descriptors were checked.
5678 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5679 atomically written to a pipe.
5681 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5682 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5683 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5684 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5685 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5686 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5687 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5690 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5691 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5692 is changed without calling tzset.
5694 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5696 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5697 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5698 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5700 (define write-network-long
5701 (lambda (value port)
5702 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5703 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5704 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5706 (define read-network-long
5708 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5709 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5710 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5712 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5713 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5715 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5716 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5717 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5718 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5720 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5721 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5722 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5723 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5727 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5729 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5733 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5734 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5735 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5741 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5742 for a description of available commands.
5744 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5745 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5746 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5748 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5750 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5751 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5753 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5755 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5757 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5758 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5759 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5760 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5761 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5762 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5765 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5767 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5768 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5769 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5770 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5772 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5773 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5775 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5777 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5779 ** Readline support has changed again.
5781 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5782 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5783 to activate readline is now
5785 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5788 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5790 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5791 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5792 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5795 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5796 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5797 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5800 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5801 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5802 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5803 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5804 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5805 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5807 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5808 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5810 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5812 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5813 object it receives is the same string passed to
5814 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5815 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5816 string, not the suffix.
5818 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5819 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5820 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5822 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5824 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5825 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5826 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5827 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5830 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5832 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5834 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5835 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5836 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5837 appear from left to right.
5839 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5842 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5844 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5845 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5847 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5851 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5853 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5855 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5857 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5858 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5859 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5861 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5863 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5865 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5867 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5870 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5872 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5873 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5874 mentioning it here anyway.
5876 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5878 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5879 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5880 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5881 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5884 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5886 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5888 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5890 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5891 otherwise return #f.
5893 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5895 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5896 returned by `opendir'.
5898 ** New function: using-readline?
5900 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5902 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5904 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5905 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5907 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5909 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5911 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5912 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5913 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5915 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5917 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5918 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5920 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5922 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5923 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5924 documentation slots are not yet used.
5926 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5928 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5929 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5930 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5935 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5936 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5937 (string-append x y))
5939 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5940 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5942 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5943 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5944 be made in a clean way.]
5946 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5948 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5950 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5952 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5953 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5955 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5957 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5959 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5961 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5963 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5964 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5965 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5966 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5969 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5971 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5973 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5975 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5977 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5978 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5980 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5982 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5984 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5986 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5988 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5989 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5990 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5991 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5992 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5993 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5995 This should not make any difference for most users.
5997 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5999 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
6000 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
6002 *** New functions for applying generic functions
6004 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
6005 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
6006 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
6007 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
6008 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
6010 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
6012 It is now replaced by:
6014 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
6016 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6017 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6019 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6021 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
6022 This might change when we get the new module system.
6024 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
6028 Changes since Guile 1.3:
6030 * Changes to mailing lists
6032 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
6034 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
6037 * Changes to the distribution
6039 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
6041 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
6042 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
6043 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
6044 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
6045 you explicitly specify it.
6047 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
6048 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
6049 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
6050 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
6051 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
6054 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
6055 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
6056 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
6057 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
6059 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
6060 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
6061 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
6064 You can activate the readline support by issuing
6066 (use-modules (readline-activator))
6069 from your ".guile" file, for example.
6071 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6073 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
6074 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
6075 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
6076 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
6078 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
6079 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
6082 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6084 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
6085 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
6086 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
6087 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
6088 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
6089 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
6090 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
6091 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
6103 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
6104 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
6105 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
6106 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
6107 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
6112 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
6113 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
6121 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
6126 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
6127 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
6130 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
6131 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
6132 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
6133 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
6135 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
6137 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
6139 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
6140 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
6142 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
6144 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
6146 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
6147 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
6149 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
6152 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
6154 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
6156 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
6158 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
6160 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
6162 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
6164 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
6165 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
6166 when the hook was created.
6168 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
6169 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
6170 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
6171 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
6172 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
6173 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
6174 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
6175 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
6176 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
6178 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
6179 the dlopen family of functions.
6181 ** New function `provided?'
6183 - Function: provided? FEATURE
6184 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
6185 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
6186 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
6188 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
6190 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
6191 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
6192 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
6193 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
6196 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
6197 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
6198 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
6199 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
6201 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
6202 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
6203 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
6206 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
6207 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
6208 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
6209 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
6210 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
6211 but with the flag set.
6213 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
6215 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
6216 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
6218 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
6219 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
6220 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
6221 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
6222 available Scheme format implementations.
6224 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
6225 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
6226 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
6227 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
6228 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
6229 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
6230 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
6231 output is to the current error port if available by the
6232 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
6235 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
6236 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
6237 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
6238 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
6239 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
6240 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
6241 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
6242 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
6244 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
6245 be executed at a time.
6248 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
6250 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
6251 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
6252 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
6254 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
6255 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
6256 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
6257 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
6258 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
6259 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
6260 general form of a directive is:
6262 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
6264 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
6266 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6268 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
6269 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
6270 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
6273 Any (print as `display' does).
6277 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
6281 S-expression (print as `write' does).
6285 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
6291 print number sign always.
6294 print comma separated.
6296 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
6302 print number sign always.
6305 print comma separated.
6307 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
6313 print number sign always.
6316 print comma separated.
6318 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
6324 print number sign always.
6327 print comma separated.
6329 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
6334 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
6338 print a number as a Roman numeral.
6341 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
6344 print a number as an ordinal English number.
6347 print a number as a cardinal English number.
6352 prints `y' and `ies'.
6355 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6358 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6363 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
6367 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
6370 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
6371 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
6373 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6376 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
6377 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
6379 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6382 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
6384 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
6386 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6389 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
6391 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
6393 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6396 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
6399 The sign appears before the padding.
6407 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
6409 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
6414 print N page separators.
6424 newline is ignored, white space left.
6427 newline is left, white space ignored.
6432 relative tabulation.
6438 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
6440 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
6443 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
6445 converts by `string-capitalize'.
6448 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
6451 converts by `string-upcase'.
6454 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
6456 jumps N arguments forward.
6459 jumps 1 argument backward.
6462 jumps N arguments backward.
6465 jumps to the 0th argument.
6468 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
6470 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
6471 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
6473 take argument from N.
6476 true test conditional.
6479 if-else-then conditional.
6485 default clause follows.
6488 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
6490 at most N iterations.
6493 args from next arg (a list of lists).
6496 args from the rest of arguments.
6499 args from the rest args (lists).
6510 aborts if N <= M <= K
6512 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6515 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6518 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6524 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
6526 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
6528 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
6529 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
6530 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
6531 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
6532 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
6533 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
6537 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
6541 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
6547 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
6550 Print a `#\space' character
6552 print N `#\space' characters.
6555 Print a `#\tab' character
6557 print N `#\tab' characters.
6560 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
6561 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
6562 must be a positive decimal number.
6565 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6566 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6567 be processed by `read'.
6570 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6571 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6572 be processed by `read'.
6575 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
6578 prints format version.
6581 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
6582 and format it accordingly.
6584 *** Configuration Variables
6586 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6587 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6588 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6589 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6592 format:symbol-case-conv
6593 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6594 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6595 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6596 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6597 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6599 format:iobj-case-conv
6600 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6601 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6604 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6607 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6613 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6614 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6615 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6616 `format' padding style.
6619 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6620 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6621 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6622 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6626 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6627 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6628 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6631 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6632 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6633 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6634 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6635 parameters or modifiers)).
6638 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6640 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6642 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6643 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6645 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6646 string-downcase! functions.
6648 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6649 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6651 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6654 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6657 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6658 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6660 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6662 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6663 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6665 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6666 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6667 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6668 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6669 would if STRING were input.
6671 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6673 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6674 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6675 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6676 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6679 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6681 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6682 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6685 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6687 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6688 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6690 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6691 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6693 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6694 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6695 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6696 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6698 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6699 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6701 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6702 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6703 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6705 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6706 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6708 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6709 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6710 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6711 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6712 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6714 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6715 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6716 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6717 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6718 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6719 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6721 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6722 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6723 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6726 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6727 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6728 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6729 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6730 the following grammar:
6731 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6732 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6733 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6734 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6735 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6736 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6737 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6738 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6739 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6740 last option in its combination)
6742 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6743 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6744 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6745 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6747 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6748 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6749 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6751 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6752 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6753 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6755 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6756 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6757 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6758 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6759 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6760 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6761 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6762 ordinary argument strings.
6764 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6765 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6766 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6767 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6769 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6770 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6772 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6773 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6774 - a required option is omitted
6775 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6776 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6777 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6778 - an option predicate fails
6783 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6786 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6787 (verbose (required? #f)
6790 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6791 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6792 (predicate ,string?))))
6794 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6795 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6797 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6798 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6799 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6800 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6803 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6805 It will be removed in a few releases.
6807 ** New syntax: lambda*
6808 ** New syntax: define*
6809 ** New syntax: define*-public
6810 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6811 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6812 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6814 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6815 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6816 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6817 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6818 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6820 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6821 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6822 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6824 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6826 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6827 and examples for `lambda*':
6830 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6832 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6833 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6834 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6835 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6836 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6837 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6838 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6839 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6841 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6843 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6844 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6845 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6846 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6848 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6849 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6850 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6851 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6852 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6853 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6854 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6855 and until the procedure is called.
6857 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6859 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6860 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6861 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6862 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6863 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6864 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6865 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6866 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6867 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6868 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6870 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6871 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6872 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6873 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6876 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6878 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6879 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6880 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6881 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6883 ** New syntax: and-let*
6884 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6886 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6887 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6888 (<variable> <expression>)
6891 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6892 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6893 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6896 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6897 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6898 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6899 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6900 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6901 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6902 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6904 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6905 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6906 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6907 shadow earlier bindings.
6909 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6911 ** New sorting functions
6913 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6914 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6915 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6916 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6918 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6919 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6922 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6923 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6924 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6926 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6927 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6928 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6929 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6931 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6932 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6933 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6934 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6935 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6938 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6939 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6940 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6941 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6942 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6943 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6945 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6946 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6947 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6949 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6950 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6951 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6954 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6955 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6956 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6958 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6959 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6961 ** New built-in random number support
6963 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6964 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6965 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6966 returned have a uniform distribution.
6968 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6969 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6970 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6971 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6972 effect of the `random' operation.
6974 *** New variable: *random-state*
6975 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6976 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6977 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6978 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6979 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6982 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6983 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6984 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6985 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6986 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6988 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6989 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6990 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6991 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6992 initialized using SEED.
6994 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6995 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6996 range between 0 and 1.
6998 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6999 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
7000 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
7001 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
7002 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
7003 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
7004 or a uniform vector of doubles.
7006 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
7007 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
7008 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
7009 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
7010 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
7011 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
7013 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
7014 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
7015 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
7016 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
7018 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
7019 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
7020 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
7021 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
7023 *** New function: random:exp STATE
7024 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
7025 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
7027 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
7029 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
7032 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
7033 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
7036 ** New function: make-guardian
7037 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
7038 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
7039 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
7040 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
7041 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
7043 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
7044 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
7045 one object if at all.
7047 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
7048 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
7049 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
7051 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
7052 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
7053 read again in last-in first-out order.
7055 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
7056 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
7058 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
7060 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
7061 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
7062 file position is used.
7064 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
7065 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
7066 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
7068 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
7069 redefined using seek.
7071 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
7072 size is not supplied.
7074 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
7075 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
7077 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
7078 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
7080 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
7082 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
7083 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
7084 and returns the contents as a single string.
7086 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
7087 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
7088 lists in serial order.
7090 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
7091 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
7092 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
7094 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
7095 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
7096 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
7097 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
7099 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
7100 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
7101 and #f if an error occured.
7103 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
7105 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
7106 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
7107 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
7108 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
7110 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
7112 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
7115 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
7117 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
7120 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7124 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
7125 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
7127 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
7128 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
7132 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7134 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
7136 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
7137 binds a variable named NAME to it.
7139 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
7141 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
7142 might change when we get the new module system.
7144 ** The smob interface
7146 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
7147 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
7149 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
7151 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
7155 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
7156 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
7157 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
7158 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
7159 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
7160 will be freed by the default free function.
7162 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
7163 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
7164 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7165 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7167 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
7168 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
7169 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7170 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7172 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
7174 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
7175 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
7179 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
7180 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7181 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7183 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
7184 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
7185 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7186 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7188 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
7189 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
7190 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
7192 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
7193 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
7194 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
7195 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
7197 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
7198 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
7199 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
7201 *** scm_newptob has been removed
7205 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
7207 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
7208 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
7209 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
7211 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
7212 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
7213 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
7215 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
7216 a string port's buffer.
7218 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
7219 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
7220 function pointers which together define the current random number
7221 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
7222 number library functions.
7224 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
7227 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
7228 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
7231 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
7232 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
7234 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
7235 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
7237 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
7238 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
7241 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
7242 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
7243 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
7244 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
7246 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
7247 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
7248 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
7249 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
7250 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
7251 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
7252 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
7254 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
7255 by libguile and the application.
7257 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
7258 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
7259 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
7260 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
7262 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
7263 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
7265 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
7266 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
7267 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
7269 ** Random number library functions
7270 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
7271 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
7272 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
7274 The default random state is stored in:
7276 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
7277 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
7278 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
7283 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
7285 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
7286 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
7287 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
7288 isn't a random state.
7290 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
7291 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
7293 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
7294 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
7295 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
7296 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
7298 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7299 Return 32 random bits.
7301 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7302 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
7304 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7305 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
7307 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7308 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
7310 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
7311 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
7313 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
7314 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
7315 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
7319 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
7321 * Changes to the distribution
7323 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
7324 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
7325 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
7328 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
7329 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
7330 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
7332 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
7333 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
7334 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
7335 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
7338 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
7339 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
7340 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
7342 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7344 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
7346 *** Function: batch-mode?
7348 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
7351 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
7353 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
7354 case has not been implemented.
7356 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
7357 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
7358 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
7361 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
7362 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
7364 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
7366 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7368 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
7370 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
7371 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
7374 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
7375 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
7376 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
7377 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
7380 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
7382 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
7383 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
7384 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
7385 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
7386 find those libraries.
7388 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
7389 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
7392 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
7394 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
7395 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
7396 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
7397 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
7399 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
7400 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
7401 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
7405 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
7407 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
7408 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
7409 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
7412 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
7413 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
7414 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
7415 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
7417 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
7418 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
7421 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
7422 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
7423 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
7424 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
7425 compiler where to find the libraries.
7427 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
7428 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
7429 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
7431 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
7432 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
7433 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
7434 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
7435 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
7439 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7441 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
7442 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
7443 internationalization support.
7445 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
7446 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
7447 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
7448 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
7449 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
7451 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
7452 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
7453 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
7454 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
7455 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
7457 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
7458 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
7459 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
7460 any GNU mirror site.
7462 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
7464 ** New function: add-history STRING
7465 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
7466 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
7467 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
7469 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
7471 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
7472 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
7473 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
7476 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
7477 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
7478 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
7480 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
7482 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
7485 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
7486 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
7489 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
7490 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
7491 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
7492 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
7493 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
7494 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
7496 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
7497 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
7498 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
7499 of the form mentioned above.
7501 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
7502 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
7503 returned in the special `rest' list.
7505 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
7506 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
7508 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
7510 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
7512 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
7514 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
7515 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
7516 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
7517 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
7518 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
7519 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
7520 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
7521 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
7524 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
7526 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
7528 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
7529 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
7532 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
7533 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
7534 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
7538 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
7539 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
7540 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
7541 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
7542 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
7543 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
7544 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
7545 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
7548 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
7550 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
7551 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
7552 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
7554 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
7556 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
7557 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
7559 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
7560 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
7561 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
7563 Why do we have this function?
7564 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
7565 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
7566 primitive, and display it differently, and
7567 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
7568 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
7571 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
7572 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
7575 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
7576 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
7577 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
7578 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
7580 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
7581 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
7584 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7585 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7587 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7589 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7590 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7591 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7592 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7593 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7594 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7595 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7598 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7600 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7601 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7603 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7604 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7605 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7606 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7607 properly continue the print chain.
7609 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7610 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7611 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7612 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7613 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7614 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7615 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7616 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7618 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7619 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7620 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7621 safest to not check for these pairs.
7623 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7624 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7625 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7626 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7628 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7630 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7631 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7633 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7635 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7637 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7638 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7639 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7641 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7642 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7643 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7645 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7646 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7647 the following functions and macros:
7649 Function: make-fluid
7651 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7652 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7653 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7654 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7655 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7657 Function: fluid? OBJ
7659 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7661 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7662 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7664 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7665 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7667 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7669 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7670 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7671 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7672 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7673 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7674 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7675 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7677 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7679 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7680 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7681 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7682 should evaluate to a fluid.
7684 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7686 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7687 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7688 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7689 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7690 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7692 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7695 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7697 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7699 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7701 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7704 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7705 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7706 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7707 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7708 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7711 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7712 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7713 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7715 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7716 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7717 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7719 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7720 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7721 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7722 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7724 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7725 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7726 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7727 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7729 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7730 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7731 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7732 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7734 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7735 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7736 their revealed counts set to zero.
7738 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7739 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7741 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7742 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7744 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7745 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7747 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7748 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7749 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7751 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7752 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7753 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7755 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7756 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7757 default environment inherited by child processes.
7759 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7760 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7761 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7763 The return value is unspecified.
7765 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7766 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7767 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7768 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7769 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7771 The return value is unspecified.
7773 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7774 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7782 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7783 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7786 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7789 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7790 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7791 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7793 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7794 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7795 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7796 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7799 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7800 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7802 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7803 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7804 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7805 the `environ' procedure.
7807 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7808 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7811 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7812 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7814 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7815 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7816 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7817 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7819 *** procedure: times
7820 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7821 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7822 return a selected component:
7825 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7829 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7832 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7836 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7837 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7841 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7842 terminated child processes.
7844 ** Removed: list-length
7845 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7846 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7848 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7850 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7852 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7854 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7855 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7856 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7857 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7859 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7860 extra complexity it introduces.
7862 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7863 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7865 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7866 variable to any non-empty value.
7868 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7869 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7871 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7873 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7874 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7876 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7878 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7879 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7881 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7883 ** vector handling routines
7885 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7886 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7887 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7888 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7889 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7891 ** pair and list routines
7893 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7896 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7898 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7901 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7903 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7905 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7906 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7907 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7908 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7909 site-specific initialization code.
7911 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7912 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7913 initialization processes.
7915 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7916 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7917 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7918 initialized properly.
7920 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7921 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7922 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7924 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7925 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7926 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7927 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7928 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7930 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7932 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7933 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7934 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7935 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7936 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7938 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7939 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7940 which look like this:
7943 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7945 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7946 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7949 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7950 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7953 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7955 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7956 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7957 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7959 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7960 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7961 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7962 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7963 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7965 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7966 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7968 int (*free) (SCM port);
7969 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7970 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7971 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7975 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7976 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7977 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7979 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7982 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7983 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7984 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7986 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7987 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7988 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7991 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7995 struct timeval *timeout);
7997 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7998 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7999 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
8000 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
8001 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
8002 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
8004 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
8005 scm_catch_body_t body,
8007 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
8010 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
8011 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
8012 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
8013 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
8014 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
8015 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
8017 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
8019 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
8022 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
8023 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
8024 spawning threads from application C code.
8026 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
8027 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
8028 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
8029 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
8030 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
8031 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
8033 ** Removed functions:
8035 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
8036 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
8038 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
8040 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
8041 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
8043 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
8045 ** mbstrings are now removed
8047 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
8048 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
8050 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
8052 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
8053 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
8054 their new names and arguments:
8056 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
8057 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
8058 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
8059 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
8062 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
8064 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
8066 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
8069 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
8071 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
8072 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
8073 pass a #f arg to catch.
8075 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
8077 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
8078 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
8081 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
8082 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
8083 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
8084 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
8085 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
8086 reclaim its storage.
8088 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
8089 worrying that some other function you call will call
8090 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
8091 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
8092 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
8093 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
8096 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
8098 * Changes to the distribution
8100 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
8101 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
8104 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
8105 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
8107 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
8108 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
8110 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
8112 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
8113 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
8114 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
8116 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8118 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
8119 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
8120 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
8121 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
8122 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
8123 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
8125 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
8126 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
8127 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
8130 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
8131 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
8132 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
8133 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
8135 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
8136 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
8137 libraries to your link command:
8139 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
8140 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
8141 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8142 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8144 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
8145 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
8146 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
8148 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
8150 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
8151 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
8154 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
8156 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
8157 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
8158 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
8159 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
8160 searched is system dependent.
8162 (dynamic-object? VAL)
8164 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
8166 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
8168 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
8169 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
8171 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
8173 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
8174 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
8175 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
8176 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
8177 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
8180 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
8182 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
8183 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
8184 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
8185 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
8186 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
8188 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
8190 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
8191 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
8193 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
8195 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
8196 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
8197 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
8200 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
8202 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
8203 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
8204 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
8205 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
8207 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
8208 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
8210 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
8212 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
8213 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
8215 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
8217 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
8218 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
8226 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
8228 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
8229 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
8230 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
8231 a more informative way.
8233 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
8234 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
8235 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
8236 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
8237 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
8238 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
8240 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
8241 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
8244 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
8245 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
8246 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
8249 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
8250 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
8251 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
8252 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
8253 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
8254 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
8256 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
8257 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
8258 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
8259 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
8262 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
8263 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
8264 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
8265 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
8266 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
8267 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
8269 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
8270 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
8271 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
8272 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
8273 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
8275 *** regexp functions
8277 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
8278 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
8279 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
8281 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
8282 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
8283 with SCSH regular expressions.
8285 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
8286 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
8287 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
8288 position of STR at which to begin matching.
8290 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
8291 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
8292 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
8293 `string-match' returns `#f'.
8295 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
8296 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
8297 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
8298 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
8299 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
8300 match strings against the compiled regexp.
8302 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
8303 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
8304 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
8305 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
8306 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
8308 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8310 **** Constant: regexp/extended
8311 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
8312 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
8313 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
8315 **** Constant: regexp/icase
8316 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
8317 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
8319 **** Constant: regexp/newline
8320 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
8322 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
8325 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
8326 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
8327 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
8329 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
8330 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
8331 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
8333 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
8334 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
8335 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
8336 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
8337 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
8340 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8342 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
8343 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
8344 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
8345 used when different portions of a string are passed to
8346 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
8347 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
8349 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
8350 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
8351 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
8353 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
8354 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
8357 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
8358 and replace them with the contents of another string.
8360 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
8361 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
8362 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
8363 may be one of the following arguments:
8365 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
8367 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
8369 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
8370 the regexp match is written.
8372 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
8373 following the regexp match is written.
8375 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
8376 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
8379 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
8380 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
8381 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
8382 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
8383 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
8384 which should be matched against this regular expression.
8386 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
8389 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
8390 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
8391 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
8392 written out to PORT.
8394 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
8395 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
8396 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
8397 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
8398 will return after processing a single match.
8400 *** Match Structures
8402 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
8403 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
8404 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
8405 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
8406 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
8407 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
8410 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
8411 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
8412 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
8413 information about the original target string that was matched against a
8414 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
8416 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
8417 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
8418 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
8420 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
8421 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
8422 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
8423 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
8424 number N did not match, return `#f'.
8426 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
8427 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
8429 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
8430 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
8432 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
8433 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
8435 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
8436 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
8438 **** Function: match:count MATCH
8439 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
8440 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
8441 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
8443 **** Function: match:string MATCH
8444 Return the original TARGET string.
8446 *** Backslash Escapes
8448 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
8449 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
8450 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
8451 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
8452 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
8453 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
8455 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
8456 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
8457 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
8458 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
8459 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
8460 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
8461 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
8462 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
8464 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
8465 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
8466 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
8467 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
8468 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
8469 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
8470 each match a single backslash in the target string.
8472 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
8473 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
8474 return the resulting string.
8476 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
8477 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
8478 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
8479 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
8480 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
8481 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
8482 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
8483 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
8484 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
8485 translated to the single character `*'.
8487 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
8488 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
8489 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
8490 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
8491 consecutive backslashes:
8493 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
8495 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
8496 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
8497 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
8499 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
8500 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
8501 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
8502 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
8503 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
8504 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
8506 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
8508 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
8509 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
8510 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
8511 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
8512 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
8513 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
8514 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
8515 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
8516 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
8517 cumbersome escape syntax.
8519 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8521 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8523 * Changes to system call interfaces:
8525 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
8528 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
8530 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
8532 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
8535 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
8536 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
8537 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
8538 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
8539 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
8541 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
8542 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
8543 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
8544 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
8545 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
8546 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
8547 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
8550 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
8551 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
8552 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
8555 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
8556 `force-output' on every port open for output.
8558 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
8559 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
8560 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
8561 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
8562 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
8563 installed, you can say:
8565 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
8568 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8570 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
8571 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
8572 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
8573 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
8574 new dynamic roots and threads.
8577 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
8579 * Changes to the distribution.
8581 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
8583 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
8584 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8585 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8586 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8587 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8588 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8589 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8590 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8592 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8595 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8596 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8601 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8603 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8604 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8606 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8607 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8608 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8609 the (command-line) function.
8610 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8611 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8612 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8614 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8615 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8616 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8617 command line arguments
8618 -ds do -s script at this point
8619 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8620 -h, --help display this help and exit
8621 -v, --version display version information and exit
8622 \ read arguments from following script lines
8624 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8625 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8627 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8630 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8634 (main (command-line))
8636 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8638 ekko a speckled gecko
8640 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8641 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8642 following list of command-line arguments:
8644 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8646 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8647 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8648 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8649 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8650 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8652 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8654 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8656 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8657 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8660 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8661 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8662 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8663 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8665 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8666 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8667 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8668 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8670 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8674 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8678 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8680 ekko a speckled gecko
8682 Unix expands this into
8684 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8686 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8687 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8689 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8691 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8692 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8694 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8695 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8696 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8697 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8698 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8699 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8700 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8701 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8702 it only terminates the argument list.)
8703 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8704 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8705 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8706 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8707 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8708 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8709 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8710 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8712 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8714 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8715 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8716 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8717 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8718 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8720 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8721 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8722 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8724 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8726 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8727 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8728 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8729 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8732 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8733 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8734 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8736 * Changes to Scheme functions
8738 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8739 and disabled by default.
8741 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8742 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8743 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8744 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8746 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8748 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8750 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8751 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8753 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8754 (read-set! keywords #f)
8756 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8757 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8758 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8761 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8762 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8763 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8766 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8767 support for Scheme functions.
8769 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8770 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8771 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8772 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8775 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8776 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8777 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8780 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8781 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8782 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8785 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8786 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8787 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8788 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8789 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8790 display the result as a prompt.
8791 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8793 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8794 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8795 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8798 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8799 procedure of zero arguments.
8801 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8802 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8803 argument is bound in the current module.
8805 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8806 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8807 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8808 public bindings into the current module.
8810 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8811 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8813 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8814 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8816 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8817 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8819 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8820 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8822 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8823 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8825 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8826 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8827 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8828 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8829 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8831 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8832 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8833 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8834 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8836 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8839 ** Changes to I/O functions
8841 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8842 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8843 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8845 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8846 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8847 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8849 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8850 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8852 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8853 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8854 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8855 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8857 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8859 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8860 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8862 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8863 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8864 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8865 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8866 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8869 'trim omit delimiter from result
8870 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8871 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8872 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8874 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8876 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8877 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8879 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8880 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8881 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8882 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8883 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8885 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8886 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8887 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8889 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8890 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8891 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8892 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8894 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8895 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8897 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8898 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8900 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8902 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8903 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8904 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8905 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8906 a delimiting character.
8907 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8909 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8910 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8911 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8912 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8913 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8914 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8916 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8917 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8919 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8920 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8921 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8923 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8924 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8925 the array to read and write.
8927 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8928 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8931 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8933 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8936 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8937 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8938 Values for COMMAND are:
8940 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8941 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8942 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8943 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8944 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8945 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8946 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8947 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8949 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8951 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8952 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8953 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8954 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8955 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8956 corresponding return set will be the same.
8958 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8961 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8962 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8963 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8964 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8965 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8966 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8967 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8968 special file being created.
8970 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8971 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8973 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8974 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8975 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8976 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8977 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8978 and originating address.
8980 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8981 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8982 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8984 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8987 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8988 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8991 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8992 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8993 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8994 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8995 this function returns #f.
8997 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8998 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8999 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
9002 (status:term-sig STATUS)
9003 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
9004 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
9007 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
9008 a valid STATUS value.
9010 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
9012 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
9013 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
9015 Component Accessor Setter
9016 ========================= ============ ============
9017 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
9018 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
9019 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
9020 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
9021 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
9022 year tm:year set-tm:year
9023 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
9024 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
9025 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
9026 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
9027 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
9029 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
9030 describing the host system:
9033 ============================================== ================
9034 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
9035 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
9036 release level of the operating system utsname:release
9037 version level of the operating system utsname:version
9038 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
9040 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
9041 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
9042 system's user database:
9045 ====================== =================
9046 user name passwd:name
9047 user password passwd:passwd
9050 real name passwd:gecos
9051 home directory passwd:dir
9052 shell program passwd:shell
9054 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
9055 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
9056 system's group database:
9059 ======================= ============
9060 group name group:name
9061 group password group:passwd
9063 group members group:mem
9065 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
9066 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
9070 ========================= ===============
9071 official name of host hostent:name
9072 alias list hostent:aliases
9073 host address type hostent:addrtype
9074 length of address hostent:length
9075 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
9077 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
9078 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
9082 ========================= ===============
9083 official name of net netent:name
9084 alias list netent:aliases
9085 net number type netent:addrtype
9086 net number netent:net
9088 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
9089 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
9093 ========================= ===============
9094 official protocol name protoent:name
9095 alias list protoent:aliases
9096 protocol number protoent:proto
9098 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
9099 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
9103 ========================= ===============
9104 official service name servent:name
9105 alias list servent:aliases
9106 port number servent:port
9107 protocol to use servent:proto
9109 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
9110 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
9113 ======================================== ===============
9114 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
9115 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
9116 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
9117 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
9119 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
9120 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
9121 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
9123 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
9124 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
9126 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
9127 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
9129 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
9130 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
9132 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
9134 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
9136 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
9137 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
9138 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
9140 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
9141 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
9142 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
9143 return the remaining characters as a string.
9145 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
9146 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
9147 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
9149 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
9151 * Changes to the gh_ interface
9153 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
9156 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
9159 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
9160 and returns the array
9162 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
9163 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
9164 the user to interpret the data both ways.
9166 * Changes to the scm_ interface
9168 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
9169 symbol's value from C code:
9171 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
9172 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
9173 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
9174 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
9176 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
9177 without assigning them a value.
9179 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
9180 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
9181 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
9183 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
9184 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
9185 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
9187 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
9188 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
9190 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
9191 doesn't actually care about that.
9193 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
9194 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
9195 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
9197 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
9198 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
9199 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
9200 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
9201 which we have just created and initialized.
9203 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
9204 should one occur. We call it like this:
9205 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
9207 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
9208 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
9209 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
9210 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
9211 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
9212 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
9215 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
9216 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
9217 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
9218 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
9219 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
9220 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
9221 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
9224 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
9225 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
9226 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
9227 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
9228 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
9231 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
9232 scm_internal_catch, except:
9234 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
9235 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
9236 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
9237 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
9240 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
9241 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
9242 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
9244 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
9245 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
9246 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
9247 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
9250 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
9251 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
9252 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
9254 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
9255 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
9256 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
9257 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
9258 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
9260 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
9261 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
9262 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
9264 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
9265 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
9266 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
9268 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
9269 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
9271 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
9272 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
9273 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
9276 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
9277 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
9278 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
9279 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
9280 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
9281 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
9282 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
9285 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
9286 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
9288 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
9289 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
9290 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
9291 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
9292 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
9295 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
9296 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
9298 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
9299 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
9302 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
9303 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
9305 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9308 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
9309 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
9310 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
9311 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
9312 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
9313 given the following arguments:
9315 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
9317 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
9319 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
9321 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9324 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
9325 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
9326 command-line arguments.
9328 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
9329 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
9330 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
9331 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
9332 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
9333 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
9336 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9339 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
9340 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
9342 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
9343 rearranged slightly. They are now:
9345 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9346 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9347 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
9348 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
9350 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9351 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9353 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9354 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
9355 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9356 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
9358 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9359 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9361 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
9362 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
9364 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
9366 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
9367 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
9368 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
9371 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
9372 returns a port instead of an FD object.
9374 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
9375 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
9380 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
9383 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
9385 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
9386 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
9387 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
9388 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
9390 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
9392 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
9394 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
9395 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
9396 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
9397 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
9398 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
9399 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
9400 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
9401 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
9402 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
9403 for more information.
9405 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
9406 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
9408 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
9409 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
9410 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
9411 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
9412 following two lines at the top of the file:
9414 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9417 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
9418 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
9419 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
9421 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
9423 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9425 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
9428 (display (car args))
9429 (if (pair? (cdr args))
9431 (loop (cdr args)))))
9434 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
9435 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
9436 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
9437 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
9438 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
9439 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
9443 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
9446 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
9449 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
9451 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
9452 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
9453 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
9454 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
9455 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
9458 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
9459 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
9460 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
9461 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
9462 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
9465 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
9468 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
9469 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
9470 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
9473 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
9474 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
9475 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
9477 to see a backtrace, and
9478 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
9479 to see them by default.
9483 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
9485 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
9487 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
9488 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
9491 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
9492 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
9493 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
9494 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
9497 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
9498 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
9499 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
9500 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
9501 functions which inspired them.
9503 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
9504 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
9508 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
9510 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
9512 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
9513 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
9516 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
9517 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
9518 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
9520 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
9521 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
9522 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
9523 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
9524 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
9526 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
9528 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
9529 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
9530 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
9533 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
9536 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
9538 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
9539 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
9540 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
9541 above should serve their purposes.
9543 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
9544 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
9545 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
9546 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
9548 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
9551 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
9552 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
9553 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
9554 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
9556 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
9557 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
9558 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
9559 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
9561 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
9562 for the `read' function.
9565 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
9566 to that of `integer?'.
9568 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
9569 use the R4RS names for these functions.
9571 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
9572 it simply returns the object's property list.
9574 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
9575 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
9576 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
9577 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
9579 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
9581 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
9584 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9586 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9587 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9589 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9591 void (*main_func) (),
9594 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9595 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9596 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9597 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9598 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9600 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9601 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9602 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9603 know which arguments have been processed.
9605 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9606 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9607 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9608 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9609 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9611 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9612 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9613 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9614 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9615 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9616 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9617 people from making that mistake.
9619 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9620 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9622 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9624 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9628 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9631 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9632 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9633 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9634 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9637 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9638 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9639 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9640 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9643 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9644 have been added to the Guile library.
9646 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9647 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9648 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9651 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9652 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9653 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9655 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9656 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9657 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9658 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9659 argument from the list.
9662 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9665 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9666 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9668 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9669 to a Scheme port object.
9671 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9672 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9677 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9679 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9680 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9681 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9682 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9683 code as a special datatype.
9685 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9686 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9687 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9688 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9689 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9692 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9693 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9694 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9695 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9696 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9698 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9701 Copyright information:
9703 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9705 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9706 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9707 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9708 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9710 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9711 of this document, or of portions of it,
9712 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9713 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9718 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"