1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the 1.6.x series:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
25 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
27 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
29 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
32 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
34 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
35 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
36 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
37 so the current effective-version is "1.7". The effective version
38 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
39 items like the versioned share directory name
40 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.7.
42 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
43 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
44 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
45 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
46 with each micro release during a stable series.
48 ** Thread implementation has changed.
50 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
51 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
52 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
53 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
54 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
57 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
58 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
59 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
60 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
63 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
64 in which case "null" threads are used.
66 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
67 "Blocking", and others.
69 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
71 This is a milder form of deprecation.
73 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
74 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
75 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
76 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
77 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
79 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
80 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
82 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
84 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
85 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
87 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
89 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
90 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
91 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
92 in parallel to other sections.
94 ### move rest to manual
96 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
97 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
98 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
99 serial section (including itself).
101 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
102 inner-most construct is in effect.
104 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
107 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
108 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
109 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
112 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
113 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
114 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
117 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
118 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
119 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
120 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
121 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
122 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
124 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple valuesm has
127 This SRFI is always available.
129 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
131 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
132 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
133 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
134 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
137 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
139 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
140 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
141 parameters without currying.
143 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
145 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
146 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
148 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
149 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
152 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
153 with a renaming import, for example.
155 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
157 The official version is good enough now.
159 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
161 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
162 provided. Use 'make html'.
164 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
166 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
169 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
171 ** New command line option `-L'.
173 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
175 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
177 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
178 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
180 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
182 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
183 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
185 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
187 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
188 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
191 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
194 (define-module (demo)
198 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
201 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
203 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
205 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
206 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
207 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
209 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
211 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
212 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
214 ** New function hashx-remove!
216 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
218 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
219 barriers and dynamic states.
221 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
222 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
223 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
226 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
227 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
228 Barriers" in the manual.
230 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
231 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
233 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
235 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
236 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
237 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
240 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
242 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
243 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
245 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
246 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
247 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform vectors.
248 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
249 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
251 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
252 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
253 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
255 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
256 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
257 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
260 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
261 substrings and read-only strings.
263 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
264 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
267 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
269 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
278 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
279 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
280 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
282 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
283 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
284 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
287 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
288 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
291 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
293 See the manual for details.
295 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
297 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
300 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
302 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
303 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
304 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
305 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
307 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
308 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
309 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
312 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
314 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
315 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
326 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
330 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
335 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
339 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
343 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
346 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
347 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
348 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
349 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
351 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
352 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
355 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
358 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
362 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
364 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
365 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
366 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
369 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
372 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
374 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
377 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
378 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
386 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
387 has been detected is to
389 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
390 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
391 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
394 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
397 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
399 to your .guile init file.
401 ### move rest to manual
403 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
405 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
407 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
408 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
409 tried until a binding is selected.
411 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
413 check report an error for bindings with a common name
414 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
415 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
416 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
417 and accept the override
418 first select the first encountered binding (override)
419 last select the last encountered binding (override)
421 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
423 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
424 into an <extended-generic>
425 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
427 The default duplicates handler is:
429 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
431 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
432 behavior) can be installed with:
434 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
436 ** New define-module option: :replace
438 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
441 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
442 for the core binding `format'.
444 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
446 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
447 a prefix to all imported bindings.
450 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
452 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
455 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
457 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
458 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
459 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
461 ### move the rest to the manual
463 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
464 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
467 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
468 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
469 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
471 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
472 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
473 generic functions sharing a common name:
475 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
476 :use-module (oop goops)
479 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
480 :use-module (oop goops)
483 (define-module (my-module)
484 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
485 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
486 :duplicates merge-generics)
488 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
491 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
492 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
493 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
496 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
497 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
498 functions, extending its ancestors.
500 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
501 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
502 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
504 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
505 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
506 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
507 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
510 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
511 adding it to the ancestor.
513 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
514 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
516 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
518 ** New function: effective-version
520 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
521 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
522 to the distribution" above.
524 ** New feature, 'futures': future, make-future, future-ref
526 Futures are like promises, but begin execution immediately in a new
527 thread. See the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
529 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
531 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
532 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
534 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
536 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
537 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
539 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
541 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
542 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
545 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
547 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
549 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
551 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
552 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
553 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
556 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
557 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
558 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
561 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
562 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
564 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
565 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
566 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
569 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
571 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
572 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
575 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
576 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
578 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
579 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
580 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
581 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
582 level for the current thread.
584 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
586 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
588 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
589 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
592 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
594 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
596 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
599 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
601 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
604 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
605 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
606 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
608 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
609 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
610 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
611 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
622 ERROR: Numerical overflow
624 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
627 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
629 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
630 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
631 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
642 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
644 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
645 them is also done exactly, of course:
650 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
653 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
654 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
656 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
658 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
659 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
660 equal to a floating point number. For example:
662 (inexact->exact 1.234)
663 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
665 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
667 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
670 ** New function 'rationalize'.
672 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
673 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
675 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
678 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
679 result when both its arguments are exact.
681 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
683 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
684 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
685 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
687 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
689 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
690 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
691 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
693 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
696 ** pretty-print has more options.
698 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
699 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
700 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
702 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
704 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
705 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
706 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
708 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
710 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
711 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
713 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
715 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
716 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
719 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
721 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
722 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
723 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
724 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
725 without the soft port blocking.
727 ** Deprecated: undefine
729 There is no replacement for undefine.
731 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
732 have been discouraged.
734 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
735 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
736 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
739 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
741 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
743 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
744 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
745 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
746 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
749 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
750 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
751 be removed in the next major Guile release.
753 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
755 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
756 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
757 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
758 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
759 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
760 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
762 * Changes to the C interface
764 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
765 take a 'delete' function argument.
767 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
768 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
770 This is an incompatible change.
772 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
774 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
775 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
776 --disable-deprecated.
778 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
780 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
781 Scheme values has been added.
783 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
784 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
789 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
790 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
792 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
794 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
795 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
798 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
800 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
801 scm_from_int for ints.
803 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
804 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
805 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
807 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
809 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
810 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
811 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
814 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
816 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
818 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
820 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
821 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
822 following alternatives.
824 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
825 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
826 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
827 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
829 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
830 do the validating for you.
832 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
833 have been discouraged.
835 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
836 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
839 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
841 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
842 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
845 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
847 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
850 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
853 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
855 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
856 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
858 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
859 scm_truncate_number should have.
861 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
862 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
864 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
867 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
868 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
869 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
871 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
872 easier to use from C.
874 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
875 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
877 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
878 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
879 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
882 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
883 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
884 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
885 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
888 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
889 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
890 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
891 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
892 and is thus quite efficient.
894 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
896 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
897 about the character encoding.
899 Replace according to the following table:
901 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
902 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
903 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
904 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
905 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
906 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
907 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
908 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
909 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
911 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
912 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
914 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
916 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
917 now also available to C code.
919 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
921 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
922 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
923 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
925 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
928 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
930 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
931 unceremoniously removed.
933 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
934 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
935 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
937 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
938 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
939 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
940 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
941 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
942 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
945 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
947 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
948 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
949 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
950 manual for more details.
952 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
953 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
955 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
956 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
957 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
959 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
961 Migrate according to the following table:
963 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
964 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
965 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
966 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
967 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
968 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
969 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
971 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
972 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
973 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
974 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
975 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
976 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
977 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
979 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
981 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
982 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
984 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
985 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
986 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
987 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
989 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
991 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
992 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
993 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
995 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
996 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
998 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
999 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1000 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1001 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1003 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1005 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1006 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1007 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1008 prevent a potential memory leak:
1015 scm_frame_begin (0);
1017 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1018 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
1020 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1021 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1028 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
1029 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
1033 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
1035 ** New function scm_frame_free
1037 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
1038 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
1039 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
1041 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1042 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1044 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1046 ** New functions scm_frame_block_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs
1048 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1049 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
1050 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
1052 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1053 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1055 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1056 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1057 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a frame that locks a mutex,
1058 blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the manual.
1060 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1062 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1063 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1064 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1066 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1068 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
1069 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1071 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1073 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
1074 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1076 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1078 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1079 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1080 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1082 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1084 You should not have used them.
1086 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1088 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1089 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1091 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1093 This macro is not intended for public use.
1095 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1097 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1099 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1101 Use scm_is_real instead.
1103 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1105 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1107 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1109 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1110 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1112 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1113 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1115 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1116 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1118 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1120 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1123 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1125 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1126 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1127 to the distribution" above.
1129 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1131 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1132 arguments are now passed directly:
1134 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1136 This is an incompatible change.
1138 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1140 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1141 function in the init section.
1143 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1145 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1147 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1148 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1149 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1150 stays roughly constant.
1152 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1153 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1154 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1155 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1156 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1159 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1160 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1161 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1162 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1164 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1165 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1166 objects for every type.
1169 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1171 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1173 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1175 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1176 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1177 initializes a new cell (see below).
1179 ** New functions for memory management
1181 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1182 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1183 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1184 cause aborts in long running programs.
1186 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1187 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1189 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1190 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1191 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1192 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1193 details and for upgrading instructions.
1195 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1196 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1197 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1199 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1201 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1202 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1203 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1204 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1205 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1207 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1208 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1209 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1211 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1212 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1214 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1216 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1217 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1218 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1219 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1220 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1222 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1224 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1227 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1229 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1231 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1233 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1234 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1236 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1238 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1239 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1241 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1242 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1244 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1246 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1248 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1249 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1250 blocking it is not well defined.
1252 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1254 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1255 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1256 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1257 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1258 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1259 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1260 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1261 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1262 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1263 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1264 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1265 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1266 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1267 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1268 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1269 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1270 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1271 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1272 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1273 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1274 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1275 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1276 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1277 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1278 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1279 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1280 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1281 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1282 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1283 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1284 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1287 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1289 * Changes to the distribution
1291 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1293 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1295 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1296 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1297 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1298 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1299 indicate major changes in Guile.
1301 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1302 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1303 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1304 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1306 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1307 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1308 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1309 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1310 micro version number.
1312 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1314 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1316 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1317 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1319 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1321 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1322 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1323 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1325 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1327 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1328 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1329 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1332 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1334 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1337 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1339 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1340 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1342 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1344 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1345 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1348 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1350 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1353 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1356 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1358 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1360 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1361 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1362 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1364 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1366 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1368 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1371 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1373 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1375 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1377 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1378 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1379 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1381 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1383 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1385 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1386 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1395 See README there for more info.
1397 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1398 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1401 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1403 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1405 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1407 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1408 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1409 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1411 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1413 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1414 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1415 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1417 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1418 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1420 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1423 (oop goops describe)
1425 (oop goops active-slot)
1426 (oop goops composite-slot)
1428 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1429 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1430 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1432 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1434 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1435 in the default environment:
1437 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1438 %read-line write-line
1440 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1441 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1443 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1445 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1448 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1449 can be used for similar functionality.
1451 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1453 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1454 it defines two procedures:
1456 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1458 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1459 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1460 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1463 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1465 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1466 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1467 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1468 write large strings.
1470 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1472 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1473 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1475 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1477 for complete documentation.
1479 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1481 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1482 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1483 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1484 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1486 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1487 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1491 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1492 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1493 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1496 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1499 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1500 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1502 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1503 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1506 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1509 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1511 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1513 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1515 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1517 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1518 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1519 Scheme programs easier.
1521 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1522 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1523 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1524 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1525 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1528 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1529 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1531 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1534 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1536 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1537 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1538 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1541 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1543 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1545 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1546 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1547 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1548 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1549 was also ASCII, for example.
1551 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1553 tag - no replacement.
1554 fseek - replaced by seek.
1555 list* - replaced by cons*.
1557 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1561 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1562 (define m (make-safe-module))
1563 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1564 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1565 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1567 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1569 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1570 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1571 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1573 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1575 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1576 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1577 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1578 from the issues related to the module system.
1580 *** New function: load-extension
1582 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1584 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1586 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1587 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1588 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1590 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1592 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1593 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1594 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1595 support dynamic linking).
1597 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1599 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1600 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1601 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1602 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1605 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1606 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1607 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1608 library and initialize it explicitely.
1610 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1611 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1613 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1615 (define-module (foo bar))
1617 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1619 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1621 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1622 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1624 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1625 (null-environment 5)
1626 (interaction-environment)
1632 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1634 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1635 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1636 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1637 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1639 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1640 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1641 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1642 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1643 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1644 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1645 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1646 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1647 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1648 one eval to the next.
1650 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1651 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1652 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1653 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1654 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1656 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1657 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1658 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1659 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1660 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1661 used in a lexical environment.
1663 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1664 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1665 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1666 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1667 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1668 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1670 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1672 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1673 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1674 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1675 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1676 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1678 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1679 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1680 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1682 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1683 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1685 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1686 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1687 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1689 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1690 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1692 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1693 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1694 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1695 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1698 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1699 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1700 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1701 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1703 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1704 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1705 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1707 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1708 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1709 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1710 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1711 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1713 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1715 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1716 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1717 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1719 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1720 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1721 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1723 See manual for more info.
1725 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1727 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1728 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1729 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1731 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1733 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1734 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1735 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1737 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1738 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1739 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1740 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1742 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1744 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1745 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1747 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1748 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1749 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1750 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1751 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1754 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1755 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1756 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1757 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1758 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1759 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1761 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1762 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1763 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1764 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1765 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1767 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1768 objects are usually permanent.
1770 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1771 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1773 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1775 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1776 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1779 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1783 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1788 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1790 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1791 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1792 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1793 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1795 ** New function `make-object-property'
1797 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1798 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1802 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1803 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1807 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1808 source properties eventually.
1810 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1812 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1813 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1814 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1816 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1817 will be removed in the next release.
1819 ** New define-module option: pure
1821 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1826 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1829 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1831 Export names NAME1 ...
1833 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1834 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1838 (define-module (foo)
1840 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1843 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1848 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1850 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1852 ** New function: port? X
1854 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1855 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1857 ** New function: file-port?
1859 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1861 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1863 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1864 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1865 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1866 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1867 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1869 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1871 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1872 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1873 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1874 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1875 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1878 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1880 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1881 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1882 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1883 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1886 ** New function: crypt password salt
1888 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1891 ** New function: chroot path
1893 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1895 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1897 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1900 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1902 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1904 ** New function: getpass prompt
1906 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1909 ** New function: flock file operation
1911 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1913 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1915 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1918 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1920 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1921 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1922 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1923 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1924 of the temporary file.
1926 ** New function: open-input-string string
1928 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1929 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1930 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1932 ** New function: open-output-string
1934 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1935 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1937 ** New function: get-output-string
1939 Return the contents of an output string port.
1941 ** New function: identity
1943 Return the argument.
1945 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1946 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1948 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1950 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1951 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1952 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1955 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1956 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1958 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1960 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1961 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1962 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1965 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1966 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1967 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1971 Use `identity' instead.
1977 ** Deprecated: return-it
1981 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1983 Use `string-length' instead.
1985 ** Deprecated: flags
1987 Use `logior' instead.
1989 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1991 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1992 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1993 port-for-each is more flexible.
1995 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1996 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1997 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1999 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2001 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2003 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2005 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2007 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2009 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2010 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2012 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2013 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2015 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2016 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2018 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2020 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2021 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2023 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2024 Use module system operations for all variables.
2026 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2028 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2031 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2033 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2034 The following bugs have been fixed:
2036 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2037 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2040 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2041 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2042 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2044 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2045 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2047 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2048 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2051 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2052 The expansion used to be like so:
2054 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2056 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2058 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2060 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2061 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2063 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2065 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2066 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2067 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2071 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2072 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2074 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2079 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2080 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2082 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2083 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2084 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2086 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2089 * Changes to the C interface
2091 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2093 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2094 with "_t". What a concept.
2096 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2098 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2100 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2104 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2105 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2107 *** C Functions removed
2109 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2110 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2111 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2112 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2113 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2114 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2115 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2117 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2119 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2121 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2123 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2125 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2126 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2128 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2130 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2133 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2135 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2137 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2139 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2140 Evaluation" in the manual.
2142 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2144 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2145 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2147 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2149 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2150 Constructors" in the manual.
2152 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2154 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2155 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2157 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2159 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2161 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2162 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2163 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2165 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2167 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2169 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2170 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2171 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2174 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2176 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2178 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2179 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2181 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2183 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2184 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2185 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2186 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2188 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2189 scm_primitive_property_ref
2190 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2191 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2193 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2194 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2196 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2198 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2199 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2200 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2201 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2203 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2205 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2206 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2207 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2208 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2209 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2210 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2211 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2213 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2214 scm_remember_upto_here
2216 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2218 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2220 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2221 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2223 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2225 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2227 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2229 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2231 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2233 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2234 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2235 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2236 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2237 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2238 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2240 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2242 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2244 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2245 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2246 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2248 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2250 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2251 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2252 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2254 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2256 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2257 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2260 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2263 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2264 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2267 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2269 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2271 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2273 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2275 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2277 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2279 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2280 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2281 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2282 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2283 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2284 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2285 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2286 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2287 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2288 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2289 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2290 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2291 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2292 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2293 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2295 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2296 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2297 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2298 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2299 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2300 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2301 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2302 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2303 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2304 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2305 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2306 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2307 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2308 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2309 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2310 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2311 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2312 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2313 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2314 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2315 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2316 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2317 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2318 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2319 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2320 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2321 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2322 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2323 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2325 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2327 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2329 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2330 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2332 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2334 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2336 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2338 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2340 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2342 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2344 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2346 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2348 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2351 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2352 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2354 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2356 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2358 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2360 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2362 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2364 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2366 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2368 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2371 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2373 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2375 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2377 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2378 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2380 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2381 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2383 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2385 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2386 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2387 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2389 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2391 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2393 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2394 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2396 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2397 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2398 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2399 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2401 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2402 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2403 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2405 Use the new ones from above instead.
2407 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2409 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2410 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2411 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2413 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2414 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2416 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2417 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2420 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2421 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2423 Use the new functions instead.
2425 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2428 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2430 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2432 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2435 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2437 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2440 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2442 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2445 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2446 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2447 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2449 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2451 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2452 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2454 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2455 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2456 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2457 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2460 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2462 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2463 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2464 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2465 inexact for an exact.
2467 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2468 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2469 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2472 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2473 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2474 accept an inexact argument.
2476 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2477 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2479 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2482 ** New number validation macros:
2483 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2487 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2489 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2490 scm_unprotect_object.
2492 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2494 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2496 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2499 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2501 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2505 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2507 * Changes to the distribution
2509 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2511 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2512 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2513 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2514 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2515 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2516 obtain these programs.
2517 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2518 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2520 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2521 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2522 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2523 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2524 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2526 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2527 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2528 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2529 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2533 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2536 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2537 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2538 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2539 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2541 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2543 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2545 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2546 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2548 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2549 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2551 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2552 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2554 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2555 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2556 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2557 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2559 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2561 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2565 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2566 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2568 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2570 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2571 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2573 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2574 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2575 number of objects of that kind.
2577 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2579 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2580 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2581 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2582 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2583 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2585 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2587 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2589 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2591 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2594 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2596 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2598 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2600 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2602 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2604 ** New command line option --debug
2606 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2608 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2610 ** New help facility
2612 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2613 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2614 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2615 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2616 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2617 (help) gives this text
2619 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2620 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2622 Examples: (help help)
2624 (help "output-string")
2626 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2628 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2630 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2631 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2634 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2635 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2636 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2639 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2640 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2641 use absolute filenames when possible.
2643 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2644 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2645 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2648 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2650 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2651 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2652 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2653 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2655 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2657 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2659 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2660 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2661 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2663 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2664 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2665 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2667 (read-enable 'positions)
2668 (debug-enable 'debug)
2670 ** Backtraces in scripts
2672 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2676 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2678 at the top of the script.
2680 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2681 The second enables backtraces.)
2683 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2685 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2686 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2687 substantially faster than before.
2689 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2690 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2692 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2693 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2695 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2697 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2698 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2699 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2701 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2702 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2703 when this hook is run in the future.
2705 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2706 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2708 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2710 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2711 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2714 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2715 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2716 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2718 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2719 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2721 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2722 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2724 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2725 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2726 in order not to need further allocation.)
2728 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2731 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2732 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2733 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2734 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2736 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2738 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2741 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2743 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2746 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2747 GC in percent of total heap size
2750 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2751 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2753 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2755 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2756 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2758 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2760 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2761 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2763 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2765 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2766 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2770 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2771 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2773 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2775 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2777 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2779 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2781 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2783 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2784 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2786 (simple-format port message . args)
2787 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2788 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2789 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2790 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2791 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2792 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2793 Does not add a trailing newline."
2795 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2797 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2798 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2800 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2801 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2803 ** Deprecated: list*
2805 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2807 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2809 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2810 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2812 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2813 is returned as result.
2815 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2817 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2819 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2821 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2822 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2825 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2827 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2829 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2830 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2832 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2834 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2836 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2838 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2840 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2842 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2844 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2846 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2847 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2848 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2850 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2853 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2855 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2856 the readability of argument checking.
2858 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2860 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2862 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2864 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2865 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2866 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2867 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2868 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2869 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2870 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2872 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2874 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2876 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2877 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2879 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2881 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2882 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2885 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2887 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2888 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2889 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2891 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2892 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2893 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2895 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2896 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2897 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2898 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2899 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2900 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2901 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2903 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2904 scm_end_input (object);
2905 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2906 ptob->flush (object);
2908 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2909 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2912 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2914 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2916 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2917 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2918 removed in a future version.
2920 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2922 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2923 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2924 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2925 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2927 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2928 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2930 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2933 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2935 in your configure.in.
2937 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2942 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2948 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2950 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2954 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2955 (define make-message string-append)
2957 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2959 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2963 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2968 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2972 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2974 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2975 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2977 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2979 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2980 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2981 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2982 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2983 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2984 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2986 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2987 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2988 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2990 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2991 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2992 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2995 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2996 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2997 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2998 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2999 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3001 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3002 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3003 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3004 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3005 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3006 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3007 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3009 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3011 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3012 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3013 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3015 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3016 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3017 KEY in the calling thread.
3019 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3020 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3021 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3022 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3023 associated with the key.
3025 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3027 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3028 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3030 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3032 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3033 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3034 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3036 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3038 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3039 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3041 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3043 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3045 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3046 returned is undefined.
3048 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3049 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3050 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3052 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3053 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3054 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3056 ** New C level GC hooks
3058 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3060 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3063 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3064 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3065 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3067 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3068 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3069 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3071 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3072 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3075 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3077 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3078 allocation parameters
3080 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3081 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3082 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3086 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3087 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3088 scm_default_max_segment_size
3090 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3092 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3093 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3095 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3097 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3098 object and count on the object being protected until
3099 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3101 The functions also have better time complexity.
3103 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3104 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3105 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3106 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3107 are no longer needed.
3109 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3111 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3112 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3113 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3114 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3116 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3118 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3120 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3122 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3123 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3124 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3125 until this issue has been settled.
3127 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3129 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3131 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3134 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3136 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3138 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3139 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3140 descriptors were checked.
3142 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3143 atomically written to a pipe.
3145 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3146 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3147 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3148 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3149 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3150 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3151 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3154 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3155 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3156 is changed without calling tzset.
3158 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3160 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3161 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3162 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3164 (define write-network-long
3165 (lambda (value port)
3166 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3167 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3168 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3170 (define read-network-long
3172 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3173 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3174 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3176 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3177 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3179 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3180 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3181 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3182 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3184 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3185 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3186 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3187 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3191 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3193 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3197 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3198 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3199 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3205 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3206 for a description of available commands.
3208 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3209 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3210 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3212 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3214 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3215 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3217 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3219 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3221 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3222 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3223 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3224 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3225 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3226 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3229 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3231 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3232 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3233 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3234 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3236 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3237 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3239 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3241 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3243 ** Readline support has changed again.
3245 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3246 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3247 to activate readline is now
3249 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3252 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3254 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3255 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3256 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3259 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3260 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3261 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3264 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3265 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3266 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3267 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3268 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3269 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3271 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3272 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3274 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3276 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3277 object it receives is the same string passed to
3278 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3279 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3280 string, not the suffix.
3282 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3283 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3284 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3286 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3288 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3289 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3290 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3291 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3294 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3296 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3298 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3299 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3300 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3301 appear from left to right.
3303 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3306 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3308 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3309 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3311 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3315 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3317 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3319 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3321 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3322 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3323 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3325 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3327 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3329 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3331 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3334 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3336 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3337 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3338 mentioning it here anyway.
3340 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3342 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3343 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3344 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3345 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3348 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3350 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3352 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3354 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3355 otherwise return #f.
3357 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3359 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3360 returned by `opendir'.
3362 ** New function: using-readline?
3364 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3366 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3368 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3369 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3371 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3373 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3375 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3376 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3377 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3379 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3381 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3382 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3384 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3386 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3387 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3388 documentation slots are not yet used.
3390 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3392 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3393 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3394 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3399 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3400 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3401 (string-append x y))
3403 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3404 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3406 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3407 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3408 be made in a clean way.]
3410 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3412 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3414 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3416 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3417 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3419 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3421 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3423 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3425 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3427 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3428 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3429 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3430 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3433 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3435 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3437 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3439 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3441 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3442 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3444 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3446 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3448 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3450 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3452 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3453 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3454 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3455 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3456 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3457 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3459 This should not make any difference for most users.
3461 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3463 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3464 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3466 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3468 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3469 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3470 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3471 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3472 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3474 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3476 It is now replaced by:
3478 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3480 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3481 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3483 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3485 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3486 This might change when we get the new module system.
3488 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3492 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3494 * Changes to mailing lists
3496 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3498 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3501 * Changes to the distribution
3503 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3505 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3506 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3507 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3508 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3509 you explicitly specify it.
3511 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3512 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3513 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3514 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3515 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3518 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3519 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3520 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3521 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3523 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3524 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3525 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3528 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3530 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3533 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3535 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3537 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3538 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3539 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3540 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3542 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3543 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3546 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3548 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3549 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3550 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3551 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3552 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3553 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3554 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3555 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3567 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3568 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3569 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3570 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3571 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3576 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3577 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3585 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3590 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3591 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3594 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3595 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3596 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3597 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3599 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3601 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3603 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3604 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3606 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3608 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3610 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3611 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3613 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3616 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3618 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3620 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3622 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3624 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3626 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3628 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3629 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3630 when the hook was created.
3632 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3633 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3634 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3635 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3636 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3637 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3638 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3639 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3640 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3642 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3643 the dlopen family of functions.
3645 ** New function `provided?'
3647 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3648 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3649 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3650 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3652 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3654 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3655 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3656 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3657 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3660 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3661 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3662 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3663 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3665 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3666 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3667 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3670 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3671 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3672 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3673 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3674 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3675 but with the flag set.
3677 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3679 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3680 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3682 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3683 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3684 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3685 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3686 available Scheme format implementations.
3688 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3689 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3690 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3691 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3692 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3693 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3694 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3695 output is to the current error port if available by the
3696 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3699 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3700 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3701 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3702 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3703 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3704 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3705 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3706 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3708 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3709 be executed at a time.
3712 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3714 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3715 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3716 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3718 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3719 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3720 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3721 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3722 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3723 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3724 general form of a directive is:
3726 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3728 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3730 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3732 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3733 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3734 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3737 Any (print as `display' does).
3741 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3745 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3749 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3755 print number sign always.
3758 print comma separated.
3760 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3766 print number sign always.
3769 print comma separated.
3771 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3777 print number sign always.
3780 print comma separated.
3782 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3788 print number sign always.
3791 print comma separated.
3793 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3798 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3802 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3805 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3808 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3811 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3816 prints `y' and `ies'.
3819 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3822 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3827 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3831 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3834 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3835 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3837 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3840 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3841 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3843 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3846 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3848 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3850 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3853 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3855 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3857 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3860 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3863 The sign appears before the padding.
3871 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3873 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3878 print N page separators.
3888 newline is ignored, white space left.
3891 newline is left, white space ignored.
3896 relative tabulation.
3902 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3904 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3907 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3909 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3912 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3915 converts by `string-upcase'.
3918 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3920 jumps N arguments forward.
3923 jumps 1 argument backward.
3926 jumps N arguments backward.
3929 jumps to the 0th argument.
3932 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3934 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3935 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3937 take argument from N.
3940 true test conditional.
3943 if-else-then conditional.
3949 default clause follows.
3952 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3954 at most N iterations.
3957 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3960 args from the rest of arguments.
3963 args from the rest args (lists).
3974 aborts if N <= M <= K
3976 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3979 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3982 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3988 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3990 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3992 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3993 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3994 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3995 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3996 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3997 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4001 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4005 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4011 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4014 Print a `#\space' character
4016 print N `#\space' characters.
4019 Print a `#\tab' character
4021 print N `#\tab' characters.
4024 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4025 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4026 must be a positive decimal number.
4029 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4030 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4031 be processed by `read'.
4034 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4035 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4036 be processed by `read'.
4039 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4042 prints format version.
4045 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4046 and format it accordingly.
4048 *** Configuration Variables
4050 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4051 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4052 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4053 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4056 format:symbol-case-conv
4057 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4058 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4059 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4060 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4061 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4063 format:iobj-case-conv
4064 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4065 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4068 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4071 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4077 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4078 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4079 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4080 `format' padding style.
4083 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4084 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4085 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4086 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4090 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4091 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4092 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4095 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4096 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4097 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4098 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4099 parameters or modifiers)).
4102 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4104 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4106 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4107 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4109 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4110 string-downcase! functions.
4112 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4113 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4115 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4118 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4121 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4122 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4124 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4126 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4127 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4129 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4130 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4131 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4132 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4133 would if STRING were input.
4135 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4137 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4138 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4139 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4140 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4143 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4145 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4146 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4149 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4151 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4152 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4154 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4155 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4157 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4158 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4159 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4160 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4162 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4163 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4165 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4166 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4167 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4169 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4170 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4172 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4173 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4174 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4175 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4176 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4178 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4179 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4180 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4181 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4182 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4183 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4185 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4186 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4187 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4190 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4191 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4192 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4193 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4194 the following grammar:
4195 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4196 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4197 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4198 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4199 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4200 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4201 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4202 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4203 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4204 last option in its combination)
4206 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4207 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4208 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4209 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4211 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4212 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4213 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4215 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4216 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4217 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4219 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4220 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4221 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4222 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4223 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4224 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4225 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4226 ordinary argument strings.
4228 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4229 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4230 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4231 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4233 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4234 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4236 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4237 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4238 - a required option is omitted
4239 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4240 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4241 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4242 - an option predicate fails
4247 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4250 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4251 (verbose (required? #f)
4254 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4255 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4256 (predicate ,string?))))
4258 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4259 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4261 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4262 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4263 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4264 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4267 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4269 It will be removed in a few releases.
4271 ** New syntax: lambda*
4272 ** New syntax: define*
4273 ** New syntax: define*-public
4274 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4275 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4276 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4278 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4279 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4280 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4281 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4282 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4284 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4285 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4286 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4288 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4290 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4291 and examples for `lambda*':
4294 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4296 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4297 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4298 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4299 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4300 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4301 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4302 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4303 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4305 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4307 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4308 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4309 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4310 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4312 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4313 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4314 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4315 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4316 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4317 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4318 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4319 and until the procedure is called.
4321 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4323 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4324 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4325 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4326 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4327 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4328 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4329 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4330 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4331 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4332 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4334 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4335 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4336 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4337 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4340 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4342 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4343 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4344 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4345 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4347 ** New syntax: and-let*
4348 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4350 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4351 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4352 (<variable> <expression>)
4355 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4356 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4357 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4360 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4361 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4362 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4363 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4364 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4365 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4366 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4368 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4369 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4370 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4371 shadow earlier bindings.
4373 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4375 ** New sorting functions
4377 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4378 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4379 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4380 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4382 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4383 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4386 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4387 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4388 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4390 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4391 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4392 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4393 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4395 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4396 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4397 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4398 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4399 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4402 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4403 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4404 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4405 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4406 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4407 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4409 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4410 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4411 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4413 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4414 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4415 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4418 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4419 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4420 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4422 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4423 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4425 ** New built-in random number support
4427 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4428 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4429 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4430 returned have a uniform distribution.
4432 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4433 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4434 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4435 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4436 effect of the `random' operation.
4438 *** New variable: *random-state*
4439 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4440 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4441 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4442 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4443 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4446 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4447 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4448 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4449 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4450 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4452 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4453 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4454 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4455 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4456 initialized using SEED.
4458 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4459 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4460 range between 0 and 1.
4462 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4463 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4464 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4465 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4466 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4467 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4468 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4470 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4471 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4472 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4473 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4474 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4475 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4477 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4478 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4479 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4480 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4482 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4483 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4484 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4485 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4487 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4488 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4489 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4491 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4493 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4496 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4497 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4500 ** New function: make-guardian
4501 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4502 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4503 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4504 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4505 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4507 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4508 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4509 one object if at all.
4511 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4512 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4513 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4515 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4516 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4517 read again in last-in first-out order.
4519 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4520 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4522 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4524 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4525 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4526 file position is used.
4528 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4529 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4530 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4532 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4533 redefined using seek.
4535 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4536 size is not supplied.
4538 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4539 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4541 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4542 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4544 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4546 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4547 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4548 and returns the contents as a single string.
4550 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4551 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4552 lists in serial order.
4554 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4555 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4556 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4558 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4559 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4560 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4561 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4563 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4564 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4565 and #f if an error occured.
4567 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4569 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4570 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4571 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4572 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4574 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4576 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4579 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4581 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4584 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4588 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4589 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4591 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4592 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4596 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4598 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4600 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4601 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4603 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4605 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4606 might change when we get the new module system.
4608 ** The smob interface
4610 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4611 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4613 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4615 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4619 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4620 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4621 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4622 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4623 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4624 will be freed by the default free function.
4626 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4627 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4628 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4629 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4631 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4632 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4633 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4634 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4636 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4638 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4639 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4643 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4644 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4645 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4647 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4648 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4649 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4650 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4652 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4653 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4654 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4656 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4657 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4658 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4659 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4661 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4662 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4663 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4665 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4669 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4671 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4672 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4673 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4675 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4676 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4677 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4679 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4680 a string port's buffer.
4682 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4683 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4684 function pointers which together define the current random number
4685 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4686 number library functions.
4688 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4691 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4692 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4695 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4696 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4698 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4699 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4701 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4702 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4705 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4706 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4707 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4708 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4710 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4711 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4712 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4713 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4714 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4715 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4716 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4718 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4719 by libguile and the application.
4721 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4722 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4723 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4724 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4726 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4727 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4729 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4730 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4731 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4733 ** Random number library functions
4734 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4735 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4736 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4738 The default random state is stored in:
4740 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4741 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4742 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4747 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4749 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4750 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4751 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4752 isn't a random state.
4754 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4755 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4757 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4758 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4759 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4760 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4762 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4763 Return 32 random bits.
4765 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4766 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4768 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4769 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4771 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4772 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4774 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4775 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4777 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4778 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4779 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4783 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4785 * Changes to the distribution
4787 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4788 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4789 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4792 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4793 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4794 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4796 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4797 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4798 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4799 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4802 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4803 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4804 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4806 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4808 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4810 *** Function: batch-mode?
4812 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4815 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4817 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4818 case has not been implemented.
4820 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4821 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4822 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4825 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4826 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4828 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4830 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4832 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4834 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4835 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4838 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4839 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4840 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4841 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4844 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4846 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4847 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4848 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4849 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4850 find those libraries.
4852 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4853 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4856 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4858 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4859 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4860 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4861 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4863 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4864 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4865 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4869 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4871 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4872 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4873 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4876 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4877 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4878 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4879 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4881 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4882 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4885 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4886 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4887 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4888 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4889 compiler where to find the libraries.
4891 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4892 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4893 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4895 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4896 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4897 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4898 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4899 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4903 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4905 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4906 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4907 internationalization support.
4909 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4910 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4911 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4912 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4913 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4915 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4916 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4917 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4918 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4919 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4921 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4922 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4923 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4924 any GNU mirror site.
4926 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4928 ** New function: add-history STRING
4929 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4930 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4931 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4933 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4935 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4936 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4937 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4940 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4941 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4942 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4944 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4946 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4949 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4950 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4953 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4954 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4955 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4956 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4957 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4958 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4960 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4961 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4962 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4963 of the form mentioned above.
4965 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4966 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4967 returned in the special `rest' list.
4969 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4970 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4972 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4974 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4976 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4978 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4979 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4980 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4981 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4982 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4983 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4984 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4985 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4988 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4990 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4992 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4993 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4996 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4997 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4998 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5002 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5003 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5004 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5005 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5006 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5007 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5008 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5009 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5012 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5014 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5015 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5016 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5018 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5020 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5021 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5023 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5024 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5025 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5027 Why do we have this function?
5028 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5029 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5030 primitive, and display it differently, and
5031 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5032 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5035 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5036 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5039 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5040 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5041 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5042 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5044 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5045 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5048 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5049 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5051 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5053 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5054 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5055 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5056 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5057 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5058 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5059 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5062 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5064 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5065 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5067 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5068 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5069 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5070 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5071 properly continue the print chain.
5073 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5074 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5075 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5076 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5077 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5078 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5079 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5080 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5082 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5083 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5084 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5085 safest to not check for these pairs.
5087 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5088 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5089 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5090 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5092 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5094 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5095 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5097 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5099 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5101 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5102 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5103 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5105 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5106 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5107 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5109 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5110 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5111 the following functions and macros:
5113 Function: make-fluid
5115 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5116 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5117 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5118 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5119 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5121 Function: fluid? OBJ
5123 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5125 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5126 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5128 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5129 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5131 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5133 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5134 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5135 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5136 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5137 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5138 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5139 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5141 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5143 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5144 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5145 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5146 should evaluate to a fluid.
5148 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5150 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5151 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5152 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5153 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5154 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5156 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5159 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5161 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5163 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5165 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5168 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5169 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5170 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5171 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5172 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5175 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5176 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5177 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5179 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5180 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5181 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5183 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5184 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5185 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5186 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5188 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5189 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5190 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5191 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5193 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5194 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5195 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5196 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5198 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5199 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5200 their revealed counts set to zero.
5202 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5203 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5205 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5206 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5208 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5209 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5211 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5212 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5213 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5215 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5216 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5217 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5219 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5220 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5221 default environment inherited by child processes.
5223 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5224 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5225 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5227 The return value is unspecified.
5229 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5230 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5231 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5232 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5233 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5235 The return value is unspecified.
5237 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5238 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5246 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5247 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5250 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5253 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5254 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5255 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5257 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5258 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5259 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5260 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5263 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5264 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5266 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5267 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5268 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5269 the `environ' procedure.
5271 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5272 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5275 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5276 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5278 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5279 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5280 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5281 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5283 *** procedure: times
5284 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5285 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5286 return a selected component:
5289 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5293 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5296 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5300 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5301 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5305 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5306 terminated child processes.
5308 ** Removed: list-length
5309 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5310 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5312 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5314 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5316 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5318 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5319 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5320 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5321 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5323 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5324 extra complexity it introduces.
5326 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5327 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5329 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5330 variable to any non-empty value.
5332 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5333 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5335 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5337 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5338 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5340 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5342 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5343 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5345 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5347 ** vector handling routines
5349 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5350 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5351 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5352 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5353 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5355 ** pair and list routines
5357 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5360 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5362 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5365 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5367 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5369 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5370 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5371 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5372 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5373 site-specific initialization code.
5375 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5376 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5377 initialization processes.
5379 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5380 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5381 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5382 initialized properly.
5384 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5385 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5386 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5388 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5389 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5390 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5391 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5392 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5394 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5396 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5397 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5398 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5399 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5400 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5402 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5403 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5404 which look like this:
5407 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5409 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5410 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5413 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5414 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5417 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5419 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5420 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5421 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5423 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5424 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5425 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5426 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5427 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5429 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5430 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5432 int (*free) (SCM port);
5433 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5434 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5435 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5439 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5440 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5441 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5443 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5446 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5447 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5448 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5450 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5451 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5452 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5455 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5459 struct timeval *timeout);
5461 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5462 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5463 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5464 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5465 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5466 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5468 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5469 scm_catch_body_t body,
5471 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5474 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5475 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5476 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5477 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5478 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5479 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5481 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5483 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5486 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5487 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5488 spawning threads from application C code.
5490 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5491 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5492 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5493 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5494 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5495 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5497 ** Removed functions:
5499 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5500 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5502 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5504 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5505 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5507 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5509 ** mbstrings are now removed
5511 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5512 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5514 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5516 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5517 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5518 their new names and arguments:
5520 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5521 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5522 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5523 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5526 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5528 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5530 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5533 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5535 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5536 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5537 pass a #f arg to catch.
5539 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5541 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5542 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5545 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5546 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5547 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5548 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5549 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5550 reclaim its storage.
5552 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5553 worrying that some other function you call will call
5554 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5555 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5556 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5557 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5560 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5562 * Changes to the distribution
5564 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5565 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5568 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5569 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5571 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5572 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5574 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5576 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5577 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5578 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5580 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5582 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5583 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5584 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5585 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5586 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5587 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5589 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5590 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5591 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5594 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5595 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5596 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5597 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5599 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5600 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5601 libraries to your link command:
5603 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5604 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5605 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5606 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5608 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5609 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5610 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5612 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5614 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5615 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5618 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5620 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5621 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5622 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5623 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5624 searched is system dependent.
5626 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5628 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5630 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5632 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5633 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5635 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5637 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5638 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5639 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5640 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5641 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5644 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5646 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5647 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5648 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5649 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5650 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5652 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5654 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5655 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5657 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5659 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5660 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5661 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5664 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5666 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5667 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5668 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5669 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5671 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5672 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5674 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5676 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5677 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5679 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5681 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5682 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5690 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5692 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5693 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5694 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5695 a more informative way.
5697 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5698 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5699 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5700 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5701 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5702 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5704 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5705 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5708 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5709 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5710 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5713 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5714 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5715 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5716 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5717 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5718 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5720 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5721 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5722 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5723 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5726 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5727 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5728 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5729 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5730 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5731 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5733 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5734 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5735 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5736 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5737 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5739 *** regexp functions
5741 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5742 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5743 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5745 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5746 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5747 with SCSH regular expressions.
5749 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5750 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5751 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5752 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5754 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5755 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5756 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5757 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5759 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5760 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5761 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5762 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5763 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5764 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5766 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5767 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5768 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5769 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5770 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5772 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5774 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5775 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5776 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5777 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5779 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5780 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5781 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5783 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5784 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5786 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5789 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5790 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5791 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5793 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5794 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5795 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5797 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5798 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5799 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5800 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5801 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5804 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5806 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5807 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5808 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5809 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5810 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5811 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5813 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5814 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5815 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5817 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5818 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5821 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5822 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5824 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5825 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5826 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5827 may be one of the following arguments:
5829 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5831 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5833 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5834 the regexp match is written.
5836 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5837 following the regexp match is written.
5839 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5840 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5843 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5844 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5845 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5846 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5847 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5848 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5850 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5853 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5854 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5855 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5856 written out to PORT.
5858 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5859 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5860 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5861 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5862 will return after processing a single match.
5864 *** Match Structures
5866 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5867 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5868 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5869 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5870 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5871 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5874 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5875 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5876 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5877 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5878 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5880 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5881 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5882 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5884 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5885 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5886 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5887 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5888 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5890 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5891 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5893 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5894 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5896 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5897 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5899 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5900 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5902 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5903 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5904 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5905 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5907 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5908 Return the original TARGET string.
5910 *** Backslash Escapes
5912 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5913 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5914 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5915 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5916 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5917 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5919 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5920 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5921 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5922 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5923 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5924 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5925 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5926 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5928 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5929 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5930 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5931 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5932 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5933 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5934 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5936 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5937 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5938 return the resulting string.
5940 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5941 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5942 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5943 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5944 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5945 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5946 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5947 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5948 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5949 translated to the single character `*'.
5951 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5952 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5953 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5954 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5955 consecutive backslashes:
5957 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5959 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5960 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5961 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5963 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5964 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5965 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5966 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5967 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5968 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5970 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5972 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5973 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5974 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5975 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5976 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5977 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5978 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5979 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5980 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5981 cumbersome escape syntax.
5983 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5985 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5987 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5989 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5992 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5994 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5996 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5999 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6000 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6001 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6002 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6003 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6005 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6006 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6007 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6008 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6009 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6010 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6011 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6014 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6015 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6016 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6019 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6020 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6022 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6023 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6024 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6025 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6026 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6027 installed, you can say:
6029 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6032 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6034 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6035 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6036 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6037 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6038 new dynamic roots and threads.
6041 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6043 * Changes to the distribution.
6045 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6047 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6048 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6049 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6050 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6051 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6052 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6053 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6054 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6056 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6059 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6060 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6065 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6067 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6068 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6070 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6071 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6072 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6073 the (command-line) function.
6074 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6075 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6076 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6078 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6079 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6080 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6081 command line arguments
6082 -ds do -s script at this point
6083 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6084 -h, --help display this help and exit
6085 -v, --version display version information and exit
6086 \ read arguments from following script lines
6088 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6089 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6091 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6094 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6098 (main (command-line))
6100 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6102 ekko a speckled gecko
6104 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6105 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6106 following list of command-line arguments:
6108 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6110 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6111 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6112 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6113 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6114 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6116 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6118 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6120 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6121 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6124 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6125 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6126 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6127 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6129 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6130 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6131 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6132 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6134 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6138 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6142 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6144 ekko a speckled gecko
6146 Unix expands this into
6148 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6150 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6151 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6153 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6155 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6156 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6158 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6159 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6160 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6161 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6162 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6163 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6164 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6165 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6166 it only terminates the argument list.)
6167 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6168 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6169 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6170 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6171 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6172 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6173 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6174 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6176 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6178 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6179 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6180 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6181 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6182 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6184 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6185 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6186 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6188 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6190 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6191 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6192 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6193 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6196 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6197 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6198 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6200 * Changes to Scheme functions
6202 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6203 and disabled by default.
6205 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6206 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6207 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6208 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6210 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6212 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6214 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6215 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6217 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6218 (read-set! keywords #f)
6220 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6221 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6222 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6225 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6226 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6227 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6230 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6231 support for Scheme functions.
6233 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6234 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6235 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6236 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6239 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6240 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6241 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6244 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6245 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6246 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6249 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6250 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6251 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6252 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6253 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6254 display the result as a prompt.
6255 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6257 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6258 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6259 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6262 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6263 procedure of zero arguments.
6265 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6266 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6267 argument is bound in the current module.
6269 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6270 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6271 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6272 public bindings into the current module.
6274 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6275 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6277 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6278 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6280 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6281 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6283 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6284 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6286 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6287 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6289 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6290 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6291 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6292 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6293 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6295 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6296 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6297 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6298 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6300 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6303 ** Changes to I/O functions
6305 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6306 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6307 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6309 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6310 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6311 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6313 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6314 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6316 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6317 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6318 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6319 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6321 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6323 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6324 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6326 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6327 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6328 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6329 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6330 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6333 'trim omit delimiter from result
6334 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6335 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6336 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6338 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6340 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6341 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6343 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6344 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6345 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6346 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6347 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6349 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6350 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6351 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6353 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6354 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6355 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6356 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6358 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6359 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6361 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6362 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6364 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6366 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6367 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6368 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6369 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6370 a delimiting character.
6371 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6373 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6374 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6375 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6376 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6377 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6378 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6380 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6381 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6383 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6384 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6385 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6387 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6388 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6389 the array to read and write.
6391 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6392 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6395 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6397 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6400 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6401 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6402 Values for COMMAND are:
6404 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6405 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6406 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6407 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6408 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6409 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6410 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6411 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6413 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6415 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6416 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6417 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6418 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6419 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6420 corresponding return set will be the same.
6422 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6425 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6426 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6427 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6428 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6429 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6430 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6431 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6432 special file being created.
6434 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6435 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6437 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6438 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6439 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6440 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6441 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6442 and originating address.
6444 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6445 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6446 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6448 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6451 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6452 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6455 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6456 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6457 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6458 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6459 this function returns #f.
6461 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6462 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6463 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6466 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6467 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6468 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6471 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6472 a valid STATUS value.
6474 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6476 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6477 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6479 Component Accessor Setter
6480 ========================= ============ ============
6481 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6482 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6483 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6484 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6485 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6486 year tm:year set-tm:year
6487 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6488 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6489 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6490 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6491 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6493 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6494 describing the host system:
6497 ============================================== ================
6498 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6499 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6500 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6501 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6502 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6504 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6505 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6506 system's user database:
6509 ====================== =================
6510 user name passwd:name
6511 user password passwd:passwd
6514 real name passwd:gecos
6515 home directory passwd:dir
6516 shell program passwd:shell
6518 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6519 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6520 system's group database:
6523 ======================= ============
6524 group name group:name
6525 group password group:passwd
6527 group members group:mem
6529 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6530 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6534 ========================= ===============
6535 official name of host hostent:name
6536 alias list hostent:aliases
6537 host address type hostent:addrtype
6538 length of address hostent:length
6539 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6541 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6542 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6546 ========================= ===============
6547 official name of net netent:name
6548 alias list netent:aliases
6549 net number type netent:addrtype
6550 net number netent:net
6552 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6553 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6557 ========================= ===============
6558 official protocol name protoent:name
6559 alias list protoent:aliases
6560 protocol number protoent:proto
6562 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6563 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6567 ========================= ===============
6568 official service name servent:name
6569 alias list servent:aliases
6570 port number servent:port
6571 protocol to use servent:proto
6573 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6574 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6577 ======================================== ===============
6578 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6579 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6580 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6581 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6583 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6584 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6585 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6587 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6588 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6590 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6591 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6593 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6594 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6596 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6598 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6600 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6601 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6602 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6604 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6605 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6606 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6607 return the remaining characters as a string.
6609 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6610 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6611 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6613 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6615 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6617 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6620 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6623 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6624 and returns the array
6626 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6627 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6628 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6630 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6632 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6633 symbol's value from C code:
6635 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6636 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6637 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6638 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6640 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6641 without assigning them a value.
6643 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6644 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6645 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6647 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6648 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6649 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6651 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6652 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6654 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6655 doesn't actually care about that.
6657 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6658 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6659 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6661 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6662 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6663 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6664 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6665 which we have just created and initialized.
6667 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6668 should one occur. We call it like this:
6669 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6671 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6672 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6673 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6674 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6675 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6676 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6679 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6680 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6681 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6682 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6683 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6684 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6685 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6688 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6689 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6690 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6691 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6692 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6695 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6696 scm_internal_catch, except:
6698 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6699 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6700 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6701 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6704 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6705 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6706 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6708 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6709 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6710 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6711 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6714 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6715 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6716 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6718 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6719 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6720 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6721 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6722 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6724 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6725 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6726 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6728 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6729 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6730 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6732 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6733 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6735 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6736 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6737 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6740 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6741 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6742 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6743 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6744 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6745 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6746 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6749 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6750 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6752 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6753 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6754 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6755 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6756 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6759 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6760 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6762 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6763 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6766 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6767 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6769 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6772 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6773 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6774 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6775 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6776 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6777 given the following arguments:
6779 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6781 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6783 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6785 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6788 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6789 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6790 command-line arguments.
6792 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6793 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6794 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6795 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6796 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6797 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6800 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6803 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6804 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6806 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6807 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6809 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6810 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6811 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6812 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6814 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6815 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6817 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6818 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6819 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6820 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6822 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6823 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6825 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6826 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6828 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6830 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6831 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6832 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6835 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6836 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6838 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6839 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6844 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6847 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6849 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6850 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6851 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6852 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6854 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6856 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6858 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6859 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6860 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6861 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6862 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6863 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6864 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6865 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6866 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6867 for more information.
6869 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6870 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6872 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6873 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6874 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6875 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6876 following two lines at the top of the file:
6878 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6881 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6882 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6883 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6885 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6887 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6889 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6892 (display (car args))
6893 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6895 (loop (cdr args)))))
6898 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6899 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6900 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6901 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6902 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6903 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6907 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6910 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6913 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6915 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6916 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6917 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6918 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6919 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6922 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6923 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6924 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6925 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6926 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6929 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6932 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6933 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6934 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6937 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6938 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6939 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6941 to see a backtrace, and
6942 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6943 to see them by default.
6947 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6949 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6951 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6952 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6955 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6956 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6957 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6958 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6961 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6962 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6963 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6964 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6965 functions which inspired them.
6967 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6968 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6972 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6974 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6976 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6977 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6980 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6981 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6982 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6984 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6985 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6986 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6987 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6988 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6990 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6992 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6993 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6994 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6997 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7000 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7002 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7003 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7004 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7005 above should serve their purposes.
7007 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7008 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7009 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7010 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7012 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7015 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7016 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7017 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7018 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7020 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7021 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7022 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7023 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7025 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7026 for the `read' function.
7029 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7030 to that of `integer?'.
7032 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7033 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7035 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7036 it simply returns the object's property list.
7038 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7039 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7040 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7041 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7043 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7045 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7048 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7050 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7051 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7053 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7055 void (*main_func) (),
7058 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7059 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7060 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7061 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7062 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7064 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7065 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7066 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7067 know which arguments have been processed.
7069 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7070 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7071 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7072 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7073 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7075 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7076 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7077 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7078 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7079 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7080 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7081 people from making that mistake.
7083 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7084 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7086 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7088 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7092 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7095 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7096 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7097 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7098 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7101 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7102 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7103 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7104 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7107 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7108 have been added to the Guile library.
7110 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7111 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7112 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7115 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7116 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7117 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7119 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7120 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7121 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7122 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7123 argument from the list.
7126 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7129 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7130 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7132 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7133 to a Scheme port object.
7135 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7136 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7141 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7143 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7144 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7145 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7146 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7147 code as a special datatype.
7149 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7150 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7151 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7152 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7153 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7156 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7157 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7158 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7159 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7160 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7162 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7165 Copyright information:
7167 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7169 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7170 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7171 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7172 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7174 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7175 of this document, or of portions of it,
7176 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7177 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7182 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"