1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
9 Changes in 2.1.1 (changes since the 2.0.x series):
15 The biggest change in Guile 2.2 is a complete rewrite of its virtual
16 machine and compiler internals. The result is faster startup time,
17 better memory usage, and faster execution of user code. See the
18 "Performance improvements" section below for more details.
20 ** Better thread-safety
22 This new release series takes the ABI-break opportunity to fix some
23 interfaces that were difficult to use correctly from multiple threads.
24 Notably, weak hash tables are now transparently thread-safe. Ports are
25 also thread-safe; see "New interfaces" below for details on the changes
28 ** Off-main-thread finalization
30 Following Guile 2.0.6's change to invoke finalizers via asyncs, Guile
31 2.2 takes the additional step of invoking finalizers from a dedicated
32 finalizer thread, if threads are enabled. This avoids concurrency
33 issues between finalizers and application code, and also speeds up
36 ** Better locale support in Guile scripts
38 When Guile is invoked directly, either from the command line or via a
39 hash-bang line (e.g. "#!/usr/bin/guile"), it now installs the current
40 locale via a call to `(setlocale LC_ALL "")'. For users with a unicode
41 locale, this makes all ports unicode-capable by default, without the
42 need to call `setlocale' in your program. This behavior may be
43 controlled via the GUILE_INSTALL_LOCALE environment variable; see the
46 ** Complete Emacs-compatible Elisp implementation
48 Thanks to the work of BT Templeton, Guile's Elisp implementation is now
49 fully Emacs-compatible, implementing all of Elisp's features and quirks
50 in the same way as the editor we know and love.
52 ** Dynamically expandable stacks
54 Instead of allocating fixed stack sizes for running Scheme code, Guile
55 now starts off each thread with only one or two pages of stack, and
56 expands it dynamically as needed. Guile will throw an exception for
57 stack overflows at some user-defined limit. See the manual for
58 documentation on the GUILE_STACK_SIZE environment variable.
60 This allows users to write programs that use the stack as a data
61 structure for pending computations, as it was meant to be, without
62 reifying that data out to the heap. Where you would previously make a
63 loop that collect its results in reverse order only to re-reverse them
64 at the end, now you can just recurse without worrying about stack
67 * Performance improvements
69 ** Faster programs via new virtual machine
71 Guile's new virtual machine compiles programs to instructions for a new
72 virtual machine. The new virtual machine's instructions can address
73 their source and destination operands by "name" (slot). This makes
74 access to named temporary values much faster, and removes a lot of
75 value-shuffling that the old virtual machine had to do. The end result
76 is that loop-heavy code can be two or three times as fast with Guile 2.2
77 as in 2.0. Your mileage may vary, of course; see "A Virtual Machine for
78 Guile" in the manual for the nitties and the gritties.
80 ** Better startup time, memory usage with ELF object file format
82 Guile now uses the standard ELF format for its compiled code. (Guile
83 has its own loader and linker, so this does not imply a dependency on
84 any particular platform's ELF toolchain.) The benefit is that Guile is
85 now able to statically allocate more data in the object files. ELF also
86 enables more sharing of data between processes, and decreases startup
87 time (about 40% faster than the already fast startup of the Guile 2.0
88 series). Guile also uses DWARF for some of its debugging information.
89 Much of the debugging information can be stripped from the object files
90 as well. See "Object File Format" in the manual, for full details.
92 ** Better optimizations via compiler rewrite
94 Guile's compiler now uses a Continuation-Passing Style (CPS)
95 intermediate language, allowing it to reason easily about temporary
96 values and control flow. Examples of optimizations that this permits
97 are optimal contification, dead code elimination, parallel moves with at
98 most one temporary, and allocation of stack slots using precise liveness
99 information. For more, see "Continuation-Passing Style" in the manual.
101 ** Faster interpreter
103 Combined with a number of optimizations to the interpreter itself,
104 simply compiling `eval.scm' with the new compiler yields an interpreter
105 that is consistently two or three times faster than the one in Guile
108 ** Allocation-free dynamic stack
110 Guile now implements the dynamic stack with an actual stack instead of a
111 list of heap objects, avoiding most allocation. This speeds up prompts,
112 the `scm_dynwind_*' family of functions, fluids, and `dynamic-wind'.
114 ** Optimized UTF-8 and Latin-1 ports, symbols, and strings
116 Guile 2.2 is faster at reading and writing UTF-8 and Latin-1 strings
117 from ports, and at converting symbols and strings to and from these
120 ** Optimized hash functions
122 Guile 2.2 now uses Bob Jenkins' `hashword2' (from his `lookup3.c') for
123 its string hash, and Thomas Wang's integer hash function for `hashq' and
124 `hashv'. These functions produce much better hash values across all
125 available fixnum bits.
129 ** New `cond-expand' feature: `guile-2.2'
131 Use this feature if you need to check for Guile 2.2 from Scheme code.
133 ** New predicate: `nil?'
135 See "Nil" in the manual.
137 ** New compiler modules
139 Since the compiler was rewritten, there are new modules for the back-end
140 of the compiler and the low-level loader and introspection interfaces.
141 See the "Guile Implementation" chapter in the manual for all details.
143 ** New functions: `scm_to_intptr_t', `scm_from_intptr_t'
144 ** New functions: `scm_to_uintptr_t', `scm_from_uintptr_t'
146 See XXX in the manual.
148 ** New thread-safe port API
150 For details on `scm_c_make_port', `scm_c_make_port_with_encoding',
151 `scm_c_lock_port', `scm_c_try_lock_port', `scm_c_unlock_port',
152 `scm_c_port_type_ref', `scm_c_port_type_add_x', `SCM_PORT_DESCRIPTOR',
153 and `scm_dynwind_lock_port', see XXX.
155 There is now a routine to atomically adjust port "revealed counts". See
156 XXX for more on `scm_adjust_port_revealed_x' and
157 `adjust-port-revealed!',
159 All other port API now takes the lock on the port if needed. There are
160 some C interfaces if you know that you don't need to take a lock; see
161 XXX for details on `scm_get_byte_or_eof_unlocked',
162 `scm_peek_byte_or_eof_unlocked' `scm_c_read_unlocked',
163 `scm_getc_unlocked' `scm_unget_byte_unlocked', `scm_ungetc_unlocked',
164 `scm_ungets_unlocked', `scm_fill_input_unlocked' `scm_putc_unlocked',
165 `scm_puts_unlocked', and `scm_lfwrite_unlocked'.
167 ** New inline functions: `scm_new_smob', `scm_new_double_smob'
169 These can replace many uses of SCM_NEWSMOB, SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB2, and the
170 like. See XXX in the manual, for more.
172 ** New low-level type accessors
174 For more on `SCM_HAS_TYP7', `SCM_HAS_TYP7S', `SCM_HAS_TYP16', see XXX.
176 `SCM_HEAP_OBJECT_P' is now an alias for the inscrutable `SCM_NIMP'.
178 `SCM_UNPACK_POINTER' and `SCM_PACK_POINTER' are better-named versions of
179 the old `SCM2PTR' and `PTR2SCM'. Also, `SCM_UNPACK_POINTER' yields a
182 ** `scm_c_weak_vector_ref', `scm_c_weak_vector_set_x'
184 Weak vectors can now be accessed from C using these accessors.
186 ** <standard-vtable>, standard-vtable-fields
188 See "Structures" in the manual for more on these
190 ** Convenience utilities for ports and strings.
192 See XXX for more on `scm_from_port_string', `scm_from_port_stringn',
193 `scm_to_port_string', and `scm_to_port_stringn'.
195 ** New expressive PEG parser
197 See "PEG Parsing" in the manual for more. Thanks to Michael Lucy for
198 originally writing these, and to Noah Lavine for integration work.
200 * Incompatible changes
202 ** ASCII is not ISO-8859-1
204 In Guile 2.0, if a user set "ASCII" or "ANSI_X3.4-1968" as the encoding
205 of a port, Guile would treat it as ISO-8859-1. While these encodings
206 are the same for codepoints 0 to 127, ASCII does not extend past that
207 range, whereas ISO-8859-1 goes up to 255. Guile 2.2 no longer treats
208 ASCII as ISO-8859-1. This is likely to be a problem only if the user's
209 locale is set to ASCII, and the user or a program writes non-ASCII
210 codepoints to a port.
212 ** String ports default to UTF-8
214 Guile 2.0 would use the `%default-port-encoding' when creating string
215 ports. This resulted in ports that could only accept a subset of valid
216 characters, which was surprising to users. Now string ports default to
217 the UTF-8 encoding. Sneaky users can still play encoding conversion
218 games with string ports by explicitly setting the encoding of a port
219 after it is open. See "Ports" in the manual for more.
221 ** `scm_from_stringn' and `scm_to_stringn' encoding arguments are never NULL
223 These functions now require a valid `encoding' argument, and will abort
226 ** All r6rs ports are both textual and binary
228 Because R6RS ports are a thin layer on top of Guile's ports, and Guile's
229 ports are both textual and binary, Guile's R6RS ports are also both
230 textual and binary, and thus both kinds have port transcoders. This is
231 an incompatibility with respect to R6RS.
233 ** Vtable hierarchy changes
235 In an attempt to make Guile's structure and record types integrate
236 better with GOOPS by unifying the vtable hierarchy, `make-vtable-vtable'
237 is now deprecated. Instead, users should just use `make-vtable' with
238 appropriate arguments. See "Structures" in the manual for all of the
239 details. As such, `record-type-vtable' and `%condition-type-vtable' now
240 have a parent vtable and are no longer roots of the vtable hierarchy.
242 ** Syntax parameters are a distinct type
244 Guile 2.0's transitional implementation of `syntax-parameterize' was
245 based on the `fluid-let-syntax' interface inherited from the psyntax
246 expander. This interface allowed any binding to be dynamically rebound
247 -- even bindings like `lambda'. This is no longer the case in Guile
248 2.2. Syntax parameters must be defined via `define-syntax-parameter',
249 and only such bindings may be parameterized. See "Syntax Parameters" in
252 ** Defined identifiers scoped in the current module
254 Sometimes Guile's expander would attach incorrect module scoping
255 information for top-level bindings made by an expansion. For example,
256 given the following R6RS library:
261 (define-syntax-rule (defconst name val)
264 (define-syntax-rule (name) t))))
266 Attempting to use it would produce an error:
271 =| Unbound variable: t
273 It wasn't clear that we could fix this in Guile 2.0 without breaking
274 someone's delicate macros, so the fix is only coming out now.
276 ** Pseudo-hygienically rename macro-introduced bindings
278 Bindings introduced by macros, like `t' in the `defconst' example above,
279 are now given pseudo-fresh names. This allows
284 to introduce different bindings for `t'. These pseudo-fresh names are
285 made in such a way that if the macro is expanded again, for example as
286 part of a simple recompilation, the introduced identifiers get the same
287 pseudo-fresh names. See "Hygiene and the Top-Level" in the manual, for
290 ** Fix literal matching for module-bound literals
292 `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros can take a set of "literals":
293 bound or unbound keywords that the syntax matcher treats specially.
294 Before, literals were always matched symbolically (by name). Now they
295 are matched by binding. This allows literals to be reliably bound to
296 values, renamed by imports or exports, et cetera. See "Syntax-rules
297 Macros" in the manual for more on literals.
299 ** `dynamic-wind' doesn't check that guards are thunks
301 Checking that the dynamic-wind out-guard procedure was actually a thunk
302 before doing the wind was slow, unreliable, and not strictly needed.
304 ** All deprecated code removed
306 All code deprecated in Guile 2.0 has been removed. See older NEWS, and
307 check that your programs can compile without linker warnings and run
308 without runtime warnings. See "Deprecation" in the manual.
310 ** Remove miscellaneous unused interfaces
312 We have removed accidentally public, undocumented interfaces that we
313 think are not used, and not useful. This includes `scm_markstream',
314 `SCM_FLUSH_REGISTER_WINDOWS', `SCM_THREAD_SWITCHING_CODE', `SCM_FENCE',
315 `scm_call_generic_0', `scm_call_generic_1', `scm_call_generic_2'
316 `scm_call_generic_3', `scm_apply_generic', and `scm_program_source'.
317 `scm_async_click' was renamed to `scm_async_tick', and `SCM_ASYNC_TICK'
318 was made private (use `SCM_TICK' instead).
320 ** Many internal compiler / VM changes
322 As the compiler and virtual machine were re-written, there are many
323 changes in the back-end of Guile to interfaces that were introduced in
324 Guile 2.0. These changes are only only of interest if you wrote a
325 language on Guile 2.0 or a tool using Guile 2.0 internals. If this is
326 the case, drop by the IRC channel to discuss the changes.
328 ** Defining a SMOB or port type no longer mucks exports of `(oop goops)'
330 It used to be that defining a SMOB or port type added an export to
331 GOOPS, for the wrapper class of the smob type. This violated
332 modularity, though, so we have removed this behavior.
334 ** Bytecode replaces objcode as a target language
336 One way in which people may have used details of Guile's runtime in
337 Guile 2.0 is in compiling code to thunks for later invocation. Instead
338 of compiling to objcode and then calling `make-program', now the way to
339 do it is to compile to `bytecode' and then call `load-thunk-from-memory'
340 from `(system vm loader)'.
342 ** Remove weak pairs.
344 Weak pairs were not safe to access with `car' and `cdr', and so were
347 ** Remove weak alist vectors.
349 Use weak hash tables instead.
353 ** SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_0, SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1, SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2, SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_N
354 ** SCM_GASSERT0, SCM_GASSERT1, SCM_GASSERT2, SCM_GASSERTn
355 ** SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1_SUBR
357 These macros were used in dispatching primitive generics. They can be
358 replaced by using C functions (the same name but in lower case), if
359 needed, but this is a hairy part of Guile that perhaps you shouldn't be
362 * Changes to the distribution
366 The "effective version" of Guile is now 2.2, which allows parallel
367 installation with other effective versions (for example, the older Guile
368 2.0). See "Parallel Installations" in the manual for full details.
369 Notably, the `pkg-config' file is now `guile-2.2'.
371 ** Bump required libgc version to 7.2, released March 2012.
373 ** The readline extension is now installed in the extensionsdir
375 The shared library that implements Guile's readline extension is no
376 longer installed to the libdir. This change should be transparent to
377 users, but packagers may be interested.
381 Changes in 2.0.9 (since 2.0.7):
383 Note: 2.0.8 was a brown paper bag release that was never announced, but
384 some mirrors may have picked it up. Please do not use it.
388 ** New keyword arguments for procedures that open files
390 The following procedures that open files now support keyword arguments
391 to request binary I/O or to specify the character encoding for text
392 files: `open-file', `open-input-file', `open-output-file',
393 `call-with-input-file', `call-with-output-file', `with-input-from-file',
394 `with-output-to-file', and `with-error-to-file'.
396 It is also now possible to specify whether Guile should scan files for
397 Emacs-style coding declarations. This scan was done by default in
398 versions 2.0.0 through 2.0.7, but now must be explicitly requested.
400 See "File Ports" in the manual for details.
402 ** Rewritten guile.m4
404 The `guile.m4' autoconf macros have been rewritten to use `guild' and
405 `pkg-config' instead of the deprecated `guile-config' (which itself
408 There is also a new macro, `GUILE_PKG', which allows packages to select
409 the version of Guile that they want to compile against. See "Autoconf
410 Macros" in the manual, for more information.
412 ** Better Windows support
414 Guile now correctly identifies absolute paths on Windows (MinGW), and
415 creates files on that platform according to its path conventions. See
416 "File System" in the manual, for all details.
418 In addition, the new Gnulib imports provide `select' and `poll' on
421 As an incompatible change, systems that are missing <sys/select.h> were
422 previously provided a public `scm_std_select' C function that defined a
423 version of `select', but unhappily it also provided its own incompatible
424 definitions for FD_SET, FD_ZERO, and other system interfaces. Guile
425 should not be setting these macros in public API, so this interface was
426 removed on those plaforms (basically only MinGW).
428 ** Numerics improvements
430 `number->string' now reliably outputs enough digits to produce the same
431 number when read back in. Previously, it mishandled subnormal numbers
432 (printing them as "#.#"), and failed to distinguish between some
433 distinct inexact numbers, e.g. 1.0 and (+ 1.0 (expt 2.0 -52)). These
434 problems had far-reaching implications, since the compiler uses
435 `number->string' to serialize numeric constants into .go files.
437 `sqrt' now produces exact rational results when possible, and handles
438 very large or very small numbers more robustly.
440 A number (ahem) of operations involving exact rationals have been
441 optimized, most notably `integer-expt' and `expt'.
443 `exact->inexact' now performs correct IEEE rounding.
447 There were a number of improvements to the partial evaluator, allowing
448 complete reduction of forms such as:
450 ((let ((_ 10)) (lambda () _)))
454 (apply (lambda _ _) 1 2 3 '(4))
456 (call-with-values (lambda () (values 1 2)) (lambda _ _))
458 `string-join' now handles huge lists efficiently.
460 `get-bytevector-some' now uses buffered input, which is much faster.
462 Finally, `array-ref', `array-set!' on arrays of rank 1 or 2 is now
463 faster, because it avoids building a rest list. Similarly, the
464 one-argument case of `array-for-each' and `array-map!' has been
465 optimized, and `array-copy!' and `array-fill!' are faster.
467 ** `peek-char' no longer consumes EOF
469 As required by the R5RS, if `peek-char' returns EOF, then the next read
470 will also return EOF. Previously `peek-char' would consume the EOF.
471 This makes a difference for terminal devices where it is possible to
476 Guile's copy of Gnulib was updated to v0.0-7865-ga828bb2. The following
477 modules were imported from Gnulib: select, times, pipe-posix, fstat,
478 getlogin, poll, and c-strcase.
480 ** `include' resolves relative file names relative to including file
482 Given a relative file name, `include' will look for it relative to the
483 directory of the including file. This harmonizes the behavior of
484 `include' with that of `load'.
486 ** SLIB compatibility restored
488 Guile 2.0.8 is now compatible with SLIB. You will have to use a
489 development version of SLIB, however, until a new version of SLIB is
492 ** Better ,trace REPL command
494 Sometimes the ,trace output for nested function calls could overflow the
495 terminal width, which wasn't useful. Now there is a limit to the amount
496 of space the prefix will take. See the documentation for ",trace" for
499 ** Better docstring syntax supported for `case-lambda'
501 Docstrings can now be placed immediately after the `case-lambda' or
502 `case-lambda*' keyword. See "Case-lambda" in the manual.
504 ** Improved handling of Unicode byte order marks
506 See "BOM Handling" in the manual for details.
508 ** Update predefined character sets to Unicode 6.2
510 ** GMP 4.2 or later required
512 Guile used to require GMP at least version 4.1 (released in May 2002),
513 and now requires at least version 4.2 (released in March 2006).
517 ** Better SXML documentation
519 The documentation for SXML modules was much improved, though there is
520 still far to go. See "SXML" in manual.
524 Use of "iff" was replaced with standard English. Keyword arguments are
525 now documented consistently, along with their default values.
527 ** An end to the generated-documentation experiment
529 When Guile 2.0 imported some modules from Guile-Lib, they came with a
530 system that generated documentation from docstrings and module
531 commentaries. This produced terrible documentation. We finally bit the
532 bullet and incorporated these modules into the main text, and will be
533 improving them manually over time, as is the case with SXML. Help is
538 There is now documentation for `scm_array_type', and `scm_array_ref', as
539 well as for the new `array-length' / 'scm_c_array_length' /
540 `scm_array_length' functions. `array-in-bounds?' has better
541 documentation as well. The `program-arguments-alist' and
542 `program-lambda-list' functions are now documented, as well as `and=>',
543 `exit', and `quit'. The (system repl server) module is now documented
544 (see REPL Servers). Finally, the GOOPS class hierarchy diagram has been
545 regenerated for the web and print output formats.
549 ** Deprecate generalized vector interface
551 The generalized vector interface, introduced in 1.8.0, is simply a
552 redundant, verbose interface to arrays of rank 1. `array-ref' and
553 similar functions are entirely sufficient. Thus,
554 `scm_generalized_vector_p', `scm_generalized_vector_length',
555 `scm_generalized_vector_ref', `scm_generalized_vector_set_x', and
556 `scm_generalized_vector_to_list' are now deprecated.
558 ** Deprecate SCM_CHAR_CODE_LIMIT and char-code-limit
560 These constants were defined to 256, which is not the highest codepoint
561 supported by Guile. Given that they were useless and incorrect, they
562 have been deprecated.
564 ** Deprecate `http-get*'
566 The new `#:streaming?' argument to `http-get' subsumes the functionality
567 of `http-get*' (introduced in 2.0.7). Also, the `#:extra-headers'
568 argument is deprecated in favor of `#:headers'.
570 ** Deprecate (ice-9 mapping)
572 This module, present in Guile since 1996 but never used or documented,
573 has never worked in Guile 2.0. It has now been deprecated and will be
574 removed in Guile 2.2.
576 ** Deprecate undocumented array-related C functions
578 These are `scm_array_fill_int', `scm_ra_eqp', `scm_ra_lessp',
579 `scm_ra_leqp', `scm_ra_grp', `scm_ra_greqp', `scm_ra_sum',
580 `scm_ra_product', `scm_ra_difference', `scm_ra_divide', and
581 `scm_array_identity'.
587 See "SRFI-41" in the manual.
589 ** SRFI-45 exports `promise?'
591 SRFI-45 now exports a `promise?' procedure that works with its promises.
592 Also, its promises now print more nicely.
594 ** New HTTP client procedures
596 See "Web Client" for documentation on the new `http-head', `http-post',
597 `http-put', `http-delete', `http-trace', and `http-options' procedures,
598 and also for more options to `http-get'.
600 ** Much more capable `xml->sxml'
602 See "Reading and Writing XML" for information on how the `xml->sxml'
603 parser deals with namespaces, processed entities, doctypes, and literal
604 strings. Incidentally, `current-ssax-error-port' is now a parameter
607 ** New procedures for converting strings to and from bytevectors
609 See "Representing Strings as Bytes" for documention on the new `(ice-9
610 iconv)' module and its `bytevector->string' and `string->bytevector'
613 ** Escape continuations with `call/ec' and `let/ec'
615 See "Prompt Primitives".
617 ** New procedures to read all characters from a port
619 See "Line/Delimited" in the manual for documentation on `read-string'
622 ** New procedure `sendfile'
626 ** New procedure `unget-bytevector'
628 See "R6RS Binary Input".
630 ** New C helper: `scm_c_bind_keyword_arguments'
632 See "Keyword Procedures".
634 ** New command-line arguments: `--language' and `-C'
636 See "Command-line Options" in the manual.
638 ** New environment variables: `GUILE_STACK_SIZE', `GUILE_INSTALL_LOCALE'
640 See "Environment Variables".
642 ** New procedures for dealing with file names
644 See "File System" for documentation on `system-file-name-convention',
645 `file-name-separator?', `absolute-file-name?', and
646 `file-name-separator-string'.
648 ** `array-length', an array's first dimension
650 See "Array Procedures".
652 ** `hash-count', for hash tables
656 ** `round-ash', a bit-shifting operator that rounds on right-shift
658 See "Bitwise Operations".
660 ** New foreign types: `ssize_t', `ptrdiff_t'
664 ** New C helpers: `scm_from_ptrdiff_t', `scm_to_ptrdiff_t'
668 ** Socket option `SO_REUSEPORT' now available from Scheme
670 If supported on the platform, `SO_REUSEPORT' is now available from
671 Scheme as well. See "Network Sockets and Communication".
673 ** `current-language' in default environment
675 Previously defined only in `(system base language)', `current-language'
676 is now defined in the default environment, and is used to determine the
677 language for the REPL, and for `compile-and-load'.
679 ** New procedure: `fluid->parameter'
681 See "Parameters", for information on how to convert a fluid to a
684 ** New `print' REPL option
686 See "REPL Commands" in the manual for information on the new
687 user-customizable REPL printer.
689 ** New variable: %site-ccache-dir
691 The "Installing Site Packages" and "Build Config" manual sections now
692 refer to this variable to describe where users should install their
697 ** Fix compilation against libgc 7.3.
698 ** Fix cross-compilation of `c-tokenize.o'.
699 ** Fix warning when compiling against glibc 2.17.
700 ** Fix documentation build against Texinfo 5.0.
701 ** Fix building Guile from a directory with non-ASCII characters.
702 ** Fix native MinGW build.
703 ** Fix --disable-posix build.
704 ** Fix MinGW builds with networking, POSIX, and thread support.
708 ** Fix inexact number printer.
709 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13757)
710 ** Fix infinite loop when parsing optional-argument short options (SRFI-37).
711 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13176)
712 ** web: Support non-GMT date headers in the HTTP client.
713 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13544)
714 ** web: support IP-literal (IPv6 address) in Host header.
715 ** Avoid stack overflows with `par-map' and nested futures in general.
716 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13188)
717 ** Peek-char no longer consumes EOF.
718 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12216)
719 ** Avoid swallowing multiple EOFs in R6RS binary-input procedures.
720 ** A fork when multiple threads are running will now print a warning.
721 ** Allow for spurious wakeups from pthread_cond_wait.
722 (http://bugs.gnu.org/10641)
723 ** Warn and ignore module autoload failures.
724 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12202)
725 ** Use chmod portably in (system base compile).
726 (http://bugs.gnu.org/10474)
727 ** Fix response-body-port for HTTP responses without content-length.
728 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13857)
729 ** Allow case-lambda expressions with no clauses.
730 (http://bugs.gnu.org/9776)
731 ** Improve standards conformance of string->number.
732 (http://bugs.gnu.org/11887)
733 ** Support calls and tail-calls with more than 255 formals.
734 ** ,option evaluates its right-hand-side.
735 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13076)
736 ** Structs with tail arrays are not simple.
737 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12808)
738 ** Make `SCM_LONG_BIT' usable in preprocessor conditionals.
739 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13848)
740 ** Fix thread-unsafe lazy initializations.
741 ** Allow SMOB mark procedures to be called from parallel markers.
742 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13611)
743 ** Fix later-bindings-win logic in with-fluids.
744 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13843)
745 ** Fix duplicate removal of with-fluids.
746 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13838)
747 ** Support calling foreign functions of 10 arguments or more.
748 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13809)
749 ** Let reverse! accept arbitrary types as second argument.
750 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13835)
751 ** Recognize the `x86_64.*-gnux32' triplet.
752 ** Check whether a triplet's OS part specifies an ABI.
753 ** Recognize mips64* as having 32-bit pointers by default.
754 ** Use portable sed constructs.
755 (http://bugs.gnu.org/14042)
756 ** Remove language/glil/decompile-assembly.scm.
757 (http://bugs.gnu.org/10622)
758 ** Use O_BINARY in `copy-file', `load-objcode', `mkstemp'.
759 ** Use byte-oriented functions in `get-bytevector*'.
760 ** Fix abort when iconv swallows BOM from UTF-16 or UTF-32 stream.
761 ** Fix compilation of functions with more than 255 local variables.
762 ** Fix `getgroups' for when zero supplementary group IDs exist.
763 ** Allow (define-macro name (lambda ...)).
764 ** Various fixes to the (texinfo) modules.
765 ** guild: Gracefully handle failures to install the locale.
766 ** Fix format string warnings for ~!, ~|, ~/, ~q, ~Q, and ~^.
767 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13485)
768 ** Fix source annotation bug in psyntax 'expand-body'.
769 ** Ecmascript: Fix conversion to boolean for non-numbers.
770 ** Use case-insensitive comparisons for encoding names.
771 ** Add missing cond-expand feature identifiers.
772 ** A failure to find a module's file does not prevent future loading.
773 ** Many (oop goops save) fixes.
774 ** `http-get': don't shutdown write end of socket.
775 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13095)
776 ** Avoid signed integer overflow in scm_product.
777 ** http: read-response-body always returns bytevector or #f, never EOF.
778 ** web: Correctly detect "No route to host" conditions.
779 ** `system*': failure to execvp no longer leaks dangling processes.
780 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13166)
781 ** More sensible case-lambda* dispatch.
782 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12929)
783 ** Do not defer expansion of internal define-syntax forms.
784 (http://bugs.gnu.org/13509)
788 Changes in 2.0.7 (since 2.0.6):
792 ** SRFI-105 curly infix expressions are supported
794 Curly infix expressions as described at
795 http://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-105/srfi-105.html are now supported by
796 Guile's reader. This allows users to write things like {a * {b + c}}
797 instead of (* a (+ b c)). SRFI-105 support is enabled by using the
798 `#!curly-infix' directive in source code, or the `curly-infix' reader
799 option. See the manual for details.
801 ** Reader options may now be per-port
803 Historically, `read-options' and related procedures would manipulate
804 global options, affecting the `read' procedure for all threads, and all
805 current uses of `read'.
807 Guile can now associate `read' options with specific ports, allowing
808 different ports to use different options. For instance, the
809 `#!fold-case' and `#!no-fold-case' reader directives have been
810 implemented, and their effect is to modify the current read options of
811 the current port only; similarly for `#!curly-infix'. Thus, it is
812 possible, for instance, to have one port reading case-sensitive code,
813 while another port reads case-insensitive code.
815 ** Futures may now be nested
817 Futures may now be nested: a future can itself spawn and then `touch'
818 other futures. In addition, any thread that touches a future that has
819 not completed now processes other futures while waiting for the touched
820 future to completed. This allows all threads to be kept busy, and was
821 made possible by the use of delimited continuations (see the manual for
824 Consequently, `par-map' and `par-for-each' have been rewritten and can
827 ** `GUILE_LOAD_PATH' et al can now add directories to the end of the path
829 `GUILE_LOAD_PATH' and `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' can now be used to add
830 directories to both ends of the load path. If the special path
831 component `...' (ellipsis) is present in these environment variables,
832 then the default path is put in place of the ellipsis, otherwise the
833 default path is placed at the end. See "Environment Variables" in the
836 ** `load-in-vicinity' search for `.go' files in `%load-compiled-path'
838 Previously, `load-in-vicinity' would look for compiled files in the
839 auto-compilation cache, but not in `%load-compiled-path'. This is now
840 fixed. This affects `load', and the `-l' command-line flag. See
841 <http://bugs.gnu.org/12519> for details.
843 ** Extension search order fixed, and LD_LIBRARY_PATH preserved
845 Up to 2.0.6, Guile would modify the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH' environment
846 variable (or whichever is relevant for the host OS) to insert its own
847 default extension directories in the search path (using GNU libltdl
848 facilities was not possible here.) This approach was problematic in two
851 First, the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH' modification would be visible to
852 sub-processes, and would also affect future calls to `dlopen', which
853 could lead to subtle bugs in the application or sub-processes. Second,
854 when the installation prefix is /usr, the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH' modification
855 would typically end up inserting /usr/lib before /usr/local/lib in the
856 search path, which is often the opposite of system-wide settings such as
859 Both issues have now been fixed.
861 ** `make-vtable-vtable' is now deprecated
863 Programs should instead use `make-vtable' and `<standard-vtable>'.
865 ** The `-Wduplicate-case-datum' and `-Wbad-case-datum' are enabled
867 These recently introduced warnings have been documented and are now
868 enabled by default when auto-compiling.
870 ** Optimize calls to `equal?' or `eqv?' with a constant argument
872 The compiler simplifies calls to `equal?' or `eqv?' with a constant
873 argument to use `eq?' instead, when applicable.
877 ** SRFI-9 records now documented under "Compound Data Types"
879 The documentation of SRFI-9 record types has been moved in the "Compound
880 Data Types", next to Guile's other record APIs. A new section
881 introduces the various record APIs, and describes the trade-offs they
882 make. These changes were made in an attempt to better guide users
883 through the maze of records API, and to recommend SRFI-9 as the main
886 The documentation of Guile's raw `struct' API has also been improved.
888 ** (ice-9 and-let-star) and (ice-9 curried-definitions) now documented
890 These modules were missing from the manual.
894 ** New "functional record setters" as a GNU extension of SRFI-9
896 The (srfi srfi-9 gnu) module now provides three new macros to deal with
897 "updates" of immutable records: `define-immutable-record-type',
898 `set-field', and `set-fields'.
900 The first one allows record type "functional setters" to be defined;
901 such setters keep the record unchanged, and instead return a new record
902 with only one different field. The remaining macros provide the same
903 functionality, and also optimize updates of multiple or nested fields.
904 See the manual for details.
906 ** web: New `http-get*', `response-body-port', and `text-content-type?'
909 These procedures return a port from which to read the response's body.
910 Unlike `http-get' and `read-response-body', they allow the body to be
911 processed incrementally instead of being stored entirely in memory.
913 The `text-content-type?' predicate allows users to determine whether the
914 content type of a response is textual.
916 See the manual for details.
918 ** `string-split' accepts character sets and predicates
920 The `string-split' procedure can now be given a SRFI-14 character set or
921 a predicate, instead of just a character.
925 Previously, in R6RS modules, Guile incorrectly ignored components of
926 SRFI module names after the SRFI number, making it impossible to specify
927 sub-libraries. This release corrects this, bringing us into accordance
930 ** `define-public' is no a longer curried definition by default
932 The (ice-9 curried-definitions) should be used for such uses. See the
937 ** Remove reference to `scm_init_popen' when `fork' is unavailable
939 This fixes a MinGW build issue (http://bugs.gnu.org/12477).
941 ** Fix race between installing `guild' and the `guile-tools' symlink
945 ** Procedures returned by `eval' now have docstrings
946 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12173)
947 ** web client: correctly handle uri-query, etc. in relative URI headers
948 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12827)
949 ** Fix docs for R6RS `hashtable-copy'
950 ** R6RS `string-for-each' now accepts multiple string arguments
951 ** Fix out-of-range error in the compiler's CSE pass
952 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12883)
953 ** Add missing R6RS `open-file-input/output-port' procedure
954 ** Futures: Avoid creating the worker pool more than once
955 ** Fix invalid assertion about mutex ownership in threads.c
956 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12719)
957 ** Have `SCM_NUM2FLOAT' and `SCM_NUM2DOUBLE' use `scm_to_double'
958 ** The `scandir' procedure now uses `lstat' instead of `stat'
959 ** Fix `generalized-vector->list' indexing bug with shared arrays
960 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12465)
961 ** web: Change `http-get' to try all the addresses for the given URI
962 ** Implement `hash' for structs
963 (http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2012-10/msg00031.html)
964 ** `read' now adds source properties for data types beyond pairs
965 ** Improve error reporting in `append!'
966 ** In fold-matches, set regexp/notbol unless matching string start
967 ** Don't stat(2) and access(2) the .go location before using it
968 ** SRFI-19: use zero padding for hours in ISO 8601 format, not blanks
969 ** web: Fix uri-encoding for strings with no unreserved chars, and octets 0-15
970 ** More robust texinfo alias handling
971 ** Optimize `format' and `simple-format'
972 (http://bugs.gnu.org/12033)
973 ** Angle of -0.0 is pi, not zero
976 Changes in 2.0.6 (since 2.0.5):
980 ** New optimization pass: common subexpression elimination (CSE)
982 Guile's optimizer will now run a CSE pass after partial evaluation.
983 This pass propagates static information about branches taken, bound
984 lexicals, and effects from an expression's dominators. It can replace
985 common subexpressions with their boolean values (potentially enabling
986 dead code elimination), equivalent bound lexicals, or it can elide them
987 entirely, depending on the context in which they are executed. This
988 pass is especially useful in removing duplicate type checks, such as
989 those produced by SRFI-9 record accessors.
991 ** Improvements to the partial evaluator
993 Peval can now hoist tests that are common to both branches of a
994 conditional into the test. This can help with long chains of
995 conditionals, such as those generated by the `match' macro. Peval can
996 now do simple beta-reductions of procedures with rest arguments. It
997 also avoids residualizing degenerate lexical aliases, even when full
998 inlining is not possible. Finally, peval now uses the effects analysis
999 introduced for the CSE pass. More precise effects analysis allows peval
1002 ** Run finalizers asynchronously in asyncs
1004 Finalizers are now run asynchronously, via an async. See Asyncs in the
1005 manual. This allows Guile and user code to safely allocate memory while
1008 ** Update SRFI-14 character sets to Unicode 6.1
1010 Note that this update causes the Latin-1 characters `§' and `¶' to be
1011 reclassified as punctuation. They were previously considered to be part
1012 of `char-set:symbol'.
1014 ** Better source information for datums
1016 When the `positions' reader option is on, as it is by default, Guile's
1017 reader will record source information for more kinds of datums.
1019 ** Improved error and warning messages
1021 `syntax-violation' errors now prefer `subform' for source info, with
1022 `form' as fallback. Syntactic errors in `cond' and `case' now produce
1023 better errors. `case' can now warn on duplicate datums, or datums that
1024 cannot be usefully compared with `eqv?'. `-Warity-mismatch' now handles
1025 applicable structs. `-Wformat' is more robust in the presence of
1026 `gettext'. Finally, various exceptions thrown by the Web modules now
1027 define appropriate exception printers.
1029 ** A few important bug fixes in the HTTP modules.
1031 Guile's web server framework now checks if an application returns a body
1032 where it is not permitted, for example in response to a HEAD request,
1033 and warn or truncate the response as appropriate. Bad requests now
1034 cause a 400 Bad Request response to be printed before closing the port.
1035 Finally, some date-printing and URL-parsing bugs were fixed.
1037 ** Pretty-print improvements
1039 When Guile needs to pretty-print Tree-IL, it will try to reconstruct
1040 `cond', `or`, and other derived syntax forms from the primitive tree-IL
1041 forms. It also uses the original names instead of the fresh unique
1042 names, when it is unambiguous to do so. This can be seen in the output
1043 of REPL commands like `,optimize'.
1045 Also, the `pretty-print' procedure has a new keyword argument,
1048 ** Fix memory leak involving applicable SMOBs
1050 At some point in the 1.9.x series, Guile began leaking any applicable
1051 SMOB that was actually applied. (There was a weak-key map from SMOB to
1052 trampoline functions, where the value had a strong reference on the
1053 key.) This has been fixed. There was much rejoicing!
1055 ** Support for HTTP/1.1 chunked transfer coding
1057 See "Transfer Codings" in the manual, for more.
1059 ** Micro-optimizations
1061 A pile of micro-optimizations: the `string-trim' function when called
1062 with `char-set:whitespace'; the `(web http)' parsers; SMOB application;
1063 conversion of raw UTF-8 and UTF-32 data to and from SCM strings; vlists
1064 and vhashes; `read' when processing string literals.
1066 ** Incompatible change to `scandir'
1068 As was the original intention, `scandir' now runs the `select?'
1069 procedure on all items, including subdirectories and the `.' and `..'
1070 entries. It receives the basename of the file in question instead of
1071 the full name. We apologize for this incompatible change to this
1072 function introduced in the 2.0.4 release.
1076 The manual has been made much more consistent in its naming conventions
1077 with regards to formal parameters of functions. Thanks to Bake Timmons.
1081 ** New C function: `scm_to_pointer'
1082 ** New C inline functions: `scm_new_smob', `scm_new_double_smob'
1083 ** (ice-9 format): Add ~h specifier for localized number output.
1084 ** (web response): New procedure: `response-must-not-include-body?'
1085 ** New predicate: 'supports-source-properties?'
1086 ** New C helpers: `scm_c_values', `scm_c_nvalues'
1087 ** Newly public inline C function: `scm_unget_byte'
1088 ** (language tree-il): New functions: `tree-il=?', `tree-il-hash'
1089 ** New fluid: `%default-port-conversion-strategy'
1090 ** New syntax: `=>' within `case'
1091 ** (web http): `make-chunked-input-port', `make-chunked-output-port'
1092 ** (web http): `declare-opaque-header!'
1094 Search the manual for these identifiers, for more information.
1098 ** `close-io-port' deprecated
1102 ** `scm_sym2var' deprecated
1104 In most cases, replace with `scm_lookup' or `scm_module_variable'. Use
1105 `scm_define' or `scm_module_ensure_local_variable' if the second
1106 argument is nonzero. See "Accessing Modules from C" in the manual, for
1109 ** Lookup closures deprecated
1111 These were never documented. See "Module System Reflection" in the
1112 manual for replacements.
1116 ** Fix compilation against uninstalled Guile on non-GNU platforms.
1117 ** Fix `SCM_I_ERROR' definition for MinGW without networking.
1118 ** Fix compilation with the Sun C compiler.
1119 ** Fix check for `clock_gettime' on OpenBSD and some other systems.
1120 ** Fix build with --enable-debug-malloc.
1121 ** Honor $(program_transform_name) for the `guile-tools' symlink.
1122 ** Fix cross-compilation of GOOPS-using code.
1126 ** Fix use of unitialized stat buffer in search-path of absolute paths.
1127 ** Avoid calling `freelocale' with a NULL argument.
1128 ** Work around erroneous tr_TR locale in Darwin 8 in tests.
1129 ** Fix `getaddrinfo' test for Darwin 8.
1130 ** Use Gnulib's `regex' module for better regex portability.
1131 ** `source-properties' and friends work on any object
1132 ** Rewrite open-process in C, for robustness related to threads and fork
1133 ** Fix <TAG>vector-length when applied to other uniform vector types
1134 ** Fix escape-only prompt optimization (was disabled previously)
1135 ** Fix a segfault when /dev/urandom is not accessible
1136 ** Fix flush on soft ports, so that it actually runs.
1137 ** Better compatibility of SRFI-9 records with core records
1138 ** Fix and clarify documentation of `sorted?'.
1139 ** Fix IEEE-754 endianness conversion in bytevectors.
1140 ** Correct thunk check in the `wind' instruction.
1141 ** Add @acronym support to texinfo modules
1142 ** Fix docbook->texi for <ulink> without URL
1143 ** Fix `setvbuf' to leave the line/column number unchanged.
1144 ** Add missing public declaration for `scm_take_from_input_buffers'.
1145 ** Fix relative file name canonicalization with empty %LOAD-PATH entries.
1146 ** Import newer (ice-9 match) from Chibi-Scheme.
1147 ** Fix unbound variables and unbound values in ECMAScript runtime.
1148 ** Make SRFI-6 string ports Unicode-capable.
1151 Changes in 2.0.5 (since 2.0.4):
1153 This release fixes the binary interface information (SONAME) of
1154 libguile, which was incorrect in 2.0.4. It does not contain other
1158 Changes in 2.0.4 (since 2.0.3):
1162 ** Better debuggability for interpreted procedures.
1164 Guile 2.0 came with a great debugging experience for compiled
1165 procedures, but the story for interpreted procedures was terrible. Now,
1166 at least, interpreted procedures have names, and the `arity' procedure
1167 property is always correct (or, as correct as it can be, in the presence
1170 ** Support for cross-compilation.
1172 One can now use a native Guile to cross-compile `.go' files for a
1173 different architecture. See the documentation for `--target' in the
1174 "Compilation" section of the manual, for information on how to use the
1175 cross-compiler. See the "Cross building Guile" section of the README,
1176 for more on how to cross-compile Guile itself.
1178 ** The return of `local-eval'.
1180 Back by popular demand, `the-environment' and `local-eval' allow the
1181 user to capture a lexical environment, and then evaluate arbitrary
1182 expressions in that context. There is also a new `local-compile'
1183 command. See "Local Evaluation" in the manual, for more. Special
1184 thanks to Mark Weaver for an initial implementation of this feature.
1186 ** Fluids can now have default values.
1188 Fluids are used for dynamic and thread-local binding. They have always
1189 inherited their values from the context or thread that created them.
1190 However, there was a case in which a new thread would enter Guile, and
1191 the default values of all the fluids would be `#f' for that thread.
1193 This has now been fixed so that `make-fluid' has an optional default
1194 value for fluids in unrelated dynamic roots, which defaults to `#f'.
1196 ** Garbage collector tuning.
1198 The garbage collector has now been tuned to run more often under some
1201 *** Unmanaged allocation
1203 The new `scm_gc_register_allocation' function will notify the collector
1204 of unmanaged allocation. This will cause the collector to run sooner.
1205 Guile's `scm_malloc', `scm_calloc', and `scm_realloc' unmanaged
1206 allocators eventually call this function. This leads to better
1207 performance under steady-state unmanaged allocation.
1209 *** Transient allocation
1211 When the collector runs, it will try to record the total memory
1212 footprint of a process, if the platform supports this information. If
1213 the memory footprint is growing, the collector will run more frequently.
1214 This reduces the increase of the resident size of a process in response
1215 to a transient increase in allocation.
1217 *** Management of threads, bignums
1219 Creating a thread will allocate a fair amount of memory. Guile now does
1220 some GC work (using `GC_collect_a_little') when allocating a thread.
1221 This leads to a better memory footprint when creating many short-lived
1224 Similarly, bignums can occupy a lot of memory. Guile now offers hooks
1225 to enable custom GMP allocators that end up calling
1226 `scm_gc_register_allocation'. These allocators are enabled by default
1227 when running Guile from the command-line. To enable them in libraries,
1228 set the `scm_install_gmp_memory_functions' variable to a nonzero value
1229 before loading Guile.
1231 ** SRFI-39 parameters are available by default.
1233 Guile now includes support for parameters, as defined by SRFI-39, in the
1234 default environment. See "Parameters" in the manual, for more
1235 information. `current-input-port', `current-output-port', and
1236 `current-error-port' are now parameters.
1238 ** Add `current-warning-port'.
1240 Guile now outputs warnings on a separate port, `current-warning-port',
1241 initialized to the value that `current-error-port' has on startup.
1243 ** Syntax parameters.
1245 Following Racket's lead, Guile now supports syntax parameters. See
1246 "Syntax parameters" in the manual, for more.
1248 Also see Barzilay, Culpepper, and Flatt's 2011 SFP workshop paper,
1249 "Keeping it Clean with syntax-parameterize".
1251 ** Parse command-line arguments from the locale encoding.
1253 Guile now attempts to parse command-line arguments using the user's
1254 locale. However for backwards compatibility with other 2.0.x releases,
1255 it does so without actually calling `setlocale'. Please report any bugs
1256 in this facility to bug-guile@gnu.org.
1258 ** One-armed conditionals: `when' and `unless'
1260 Guile finally has `when' and `unless' in the default environment. Use
1261 them whenever you would use an `if' with only one branch. See
1262 "Conditionals" in the manual, for more.
1264 ** `current-filename', `add-to-load-path'
1266 There is a new form, `(current-filename)', which expands out to the
1267 source file in which it occurs. Combined with the new
1268 `add-to-load-path', this allows simple scripts to easily add nearby
1269 directories to the load path. See "Load Paths" in the manual, for more.
1271 ** `random-state-from-platform'
1273 This procedure initializes a random seed using good random sources
1274 available on your platform, such as /dev/urandom. See "Random Number
1275 Generation" in the manual, for more.
1277 ** Warn about unsupported `simple-format' options.
1279 The `-Wformat' compilation option now reports unsupported format options
1280 passed to `simple-format'.
1284 Besides the sections already mentioned, the following manual sections
1285 are new in this release: "Modules and the File System", "Module System
1286 Reflection", "Syntax Transformer Helpers", and "Local Inclusion".
1290 ** (ice-9 session): `apropos-hook'
1291 ** New print option: `escape-newlines', defaults to #t.
1292 ** (ice-9 ftw): `file-system-fold', `file-system-tree', `scandir'
1293 ** `scm_c_value_ref': access to multiple returned values from C
1294 ** scm_call (a varargs version), scm_call_7, scm_call_8, scm_call_9
1295 ** Some new syntax helpers in (system syntax)
1297 Search the manual for these identifiers and modules, for more.
1301 ** FreeBSD build fixes.
1302 ** OpenBSD compilation fixes.
1303 ** Solaris 2.10 test suite fixes.
1304 ** IA64 compilation fix.
1305 ** MinGW build fixes.
1306 ** Work around instruction reordering on SPARC and HPPA in the VM.
1307 ** Gnulib updates: added `dirfd', `setenv' modules.
1311 ** Add a deprecated alias for $expt.
1312 ** Add an exception printer for `getaddrinfo-error'.
1313 ** Add deprecated shim for `scm_display_error' with stack as first argument.
1314 ** Add warnings for unsupported `simple-format' options.
1315 ** Allow overlapping regions to be passed to `bytevector-copy!'.
1316 ** Better function prologue disassembly
1317 ** Compiler: fix miscompilation of (values foo ...) in some contexts.
1318 ** Compiler: fix serialization of #nil-terminated lists.
1319 ** Compiler: allow values bound in non-tail let expressions to be collected.
1320 ** Deprecate SCM_ASRTGO.
1321 ** Document invalidity of (begin) as expression; add back-compat shim.
1322 ** Don't leak file descriptors when mmaping objcode.
1323 ** Empty substrings no longer reference the original stringbuf.
1324 ** FFI: Fix `set-pointer-finalizer!' to leave the type cell unchanged.
1325 ** FFI: Hold a weak reference to the CIF made by `procedure->pointer'.
1326 ** FFI: Hold a weak reference to the procedure passed to `procedure->pointer'.
1327 ** FFI: Properly unpack small integer return values in closure call.
1328 ** Fix R6RS `fold-left' so the accumulator is the first argument.
1329 ** Fix bit-set*! bug from 2005.
1330 ** Fix bug in `make-repl' when `lang' is actually a <language>.
1331 ** Fix bugs related to mutation, the null string, and shared substrings.
1332 ** Fix <dynwind> serialization.
1333 ** Fix erroneous check in `set-procedure-properties!'.
1334 ** Fix generalized-vector-{ref,set!} for slices.
1335 ** Fix error messages involving definition forms.
1336 ** Fix primitive-eval to return #<unspecified> for definitions.
1337 ** HTTP: Extend handling of "Cache-Control" header.
1338 ** HTTP: Fix qstring writing of cache-extension values
1339 ** HTTP: Fix validators for various list-style headers.
1340 ** HTTP: Permit non-date values for Expires header.
1341 ** HTTP: `write-request-line' writes absolute paths, not absolute URIs.
1342 ** Hack the port-column of current-output-port after printing a prompt.
1343 ** Make sure `regexp-quote' tests use Unicode-capable string ports.
1344 ** Peval: Fix bugs in the new optimizer.
1345 ** Statistically unique marks and labels, for robust hygiene across sessions.
1346 ** Web: Allow URIs with empty authorities, like "file:///etc/hosts".
1347 ** `,language' at REPL sets the current-language fluid.
1348 ** `primitive-load' returns the value(s) of the last expression.
1349 ** `scm_from_stringn' always returns unique strings.
1350 ** `scm_i_substring_copy' tries to narrow the substring.
1351 ** i18n: Fix gc_malloc/free mismatch on non-GNU systems.
1354 Changes in 2.0.3 (since 2.0.2):
1356 * Speed improvements
1358 ** Guile has a new optimizer, `peval'.
1360 `Peval' is a partial evaluator that performs constant folding, dead code
1361 elimination, copy propagation, and inlining. By default it runs on
1362 every piece of code that Guile compiles, to fold computations that can
1363 happen at compile-time, so they don't have to happen at runtime.
1365 If we did our job right, the only impact you would see would be your
1366 programs getting faster. But if you notice slowdowns or bloated code,
1367 please send a mail to bug-guile@gnu.org with details.
1369 Thanks to William R. Cook, Oscar Waddell, and Kent Dybvig for inspiring
1370 peval and its implementation.
1372 You can see what peval does on a given piece of code by running the new
1373 `,optimize' REPL meta-command, and comparing it to the output of
1374 `,expand'. See "Compile Commands" in the manual, for more.
1376 ** Fewer calls to `stat'.
1378 Guile now stats only the .go file and the .scm file when loading a fresh
1383 ** New module: `(web client)', a simple synchronous web client.
1385 See "Web Client" in the manual, for more.
1387 ** Users can now install compiled `.go' files.
1389 See "Installing Site Packages" in the manual.
1391 ** Remove Front-Cover and Back-Cover text from the manual.
1393 The manual is still under the GNU Free Documentation License, but no
1394 longer has any invariant sections.
1396 ** More helpful `guild help'.
1398 `guild' is Guile's multi-tool, for use in shell scripting. Now it has a
1399 nicer interface for querying the set of existing commands, and getting
1400 help on those commands. Try it out and see!
1402 ** New macro: `define-syntax-rule'
1404 `define-syntax-rule' is a shorthand to make a `syntax-rules' macro with
1405 one clause. See "Syntax Rules" in the manual, for more.
1407 ** The `,time' REPL meta-command now has more precision.
1409 The output of this command now has microsecond precision, instead of
1410 10-millisecond precision.
1412 ** `(ice-9 match)' can now match records.
1414 See "Pattern Matching" in the manual, for more on matching records.
1416 ** New module: `(language tree-il debug)'.
1418 This module provides a tree-il verifier. This is useful for people that
1419 generate tree-il, usually as part of a language compiler.
1421 ** New functions: `scm_is_exact', `scm_is_inexact'.
1423 These provide a nice C interface for Scheme's `exact?' and `inexact?',
1428 See the git log (or the ChangeLog) for more details on these bugs.
1430 ** Fix order of importing modules and resolving duplicates handlers.
1431 ** Fix a number of bugs involving extended (merged) generics.
1432 ** Fix invocation of merge-generics duplicate handler.
1433 ** Fix write beyond array end in arrays.c.
1434 ** Fix read beyond end of hashtable size array in hashtab.c.
1435 ** (web http): Locale-independent parsing and serialization of dates.
1436 ** Ensure presence of Host header in HTTP/1.1 requests.
1437 ** Fix take-right and drop-right for improper lists.
1438 ** Fix leak in get_current_locale().
1439 ** Fix recursive define-inlinable expansions.
1440 ** Check that srfi-1 procedure arguments are procedures.
1441 ** Fix r6rs `map' for multiple returns.
1442 ** Fix scm_tmpfile leak on POSIX platforms.
1443 ** Fix a couple of leaks (objcode->bytecode, make-boot-program).
1444 ** Fix guile-lib back-compatibility for module-stexi-documentation.
1445 ** Fix --listen option to allow other ports.
1446 ** Fix scm_to_latin1_stringn for substrings.
1447 ** Fix compilation of untyped arrays of rank not 1.
1448 ** Fix unparse-tree-il of <dynset>.
1449 ** Fix reading of #||||#.
1450 ** Fix segfault in GOOPS when class fields are redefined.
1451 ** Prefer poll(2) over select(2) to allow file descriptors above FD_SETSIZE.
1454 Changes in 2.0.2 (since 2.0.1):
1458 ** `guile-tools' renamed to `guild'
1460 The new name is shorter. Its intended future use is for a CPAN-like
1461 system for Guile wizards and journeyfolk to band together to share code;
1462 hence the name. `guile-tools' is provided as a backward-compatible
1463 symbolic link. See "Using Guile Tools" in the manual, for more.
1465 ** New control operators: `shift' and `reset'
1467 See "Shift and Reset" in the manual, for more information.
1469 ** `while' as an expression
1471 Previously the return value of `while' was unspecified. Now its
1472 values are specified both in the case of normal termination, and via
1473 termination by invoking `break', possibly with arguments. See "while
1474 do" in the manual for more.
1476 ** Disallow access to handles of weak hash tables
1478 `hash-get-handle' and `hash-create-handle!' are no longer permitted to
1479 be called on weak hash tables, because the fields in a weak handle could
1480 be nulled out by the garbage collector at any time, but yet they are
1481 otherwise indistinguishable from pairs. Use `hash-ref' and `hash-set!'
1484 ** More precision for `get-internal-run-time', `get-internal-real-time'
1486 On 64-bit systems which support POSIX clocks, Guile's internal timing
1487 procedures offer nanosecond resolution instead of the 10-millisecond
1488 resolution previously available. 32-bit systems now use 1-millisecond
1491 ** Guile now measures time spent in GC
1493 `gc-stats' now returns a meaningful value for `gc-time-taken'.
1497 The statprof profiler now exports a `gcprof' procedure, driven by the
1498 `after-gc-hook', to see which parts of your program are causing GC. Let
1499 us know if you find it useful.
1501 ** `map', `for-each' and some others now implemented in Scheme
1503 We would not mention this in NEWS, as it is not a user-visible change,
1504 if it were not for one thing: `map' and `for-each' are no longer
1505 primitive generics. Instead they are normal bindings, which can be
1506 wrapped by normal generics. This fixes some modularity issues between
1507 core `map', SRFI-1 `map', and GOOPS.
1509 Also it's pretty cool that we can do this without a performance impact.
1511 ** Add `scm_peek_byte_or_eof'.
1513 This helper is like `scm_peek_char_or_eof', but for bytes instead of
1516 ** Implement #:stop-at-first-non-option option for getopt-long
1518 See "getopt-long Reference" in the manual, for more information.
1520 ** Improve R6RS conformance for conditions in the I/O libraries
1522 The `(rnrs io simple)' module now raises the correct R6RS conditions in
1523 error cases. `(rnrs io ports)' is also more correct now, though it is
1524 still a work in progress.
1526 ** All deprecated routines emit warnings
1528 A few deprecated routines were lacking deprecation warnings. This has
1531 * Speed improvements
1533 ** Constants in compiled code now share state better
1535 Constants with shared state, like `("foo")' and `"foo"', now share state
1536 as much as possible, in the entire compilation unit. This cuts compiled
1537 `.go' file sizes in half, generally, and speeds startup.
1539 ** VLists: optimize `vlist-fold-right', and add `vhash-fold-right'
1541 These procedures are now twice as fast as they were.
1543 ** UTF-8 ports to bypass `iconv' entirely
1545 This reduces memory usage in a very common case.
1547 ** Compiler speedups
1549 The compiler is now about 40% faster. (Note that this is only the case
1550 once the compiler is itself compiled, so the build still takes as long
1555 Some assertions that were mostly useful for sanity-checks on the
1556 bytecode compiler are now off for both "regular" and "debug" engines.
1557 This together with a fix to cache a TLS access and some other tweaks
1558 improve the VM's performance by about 20%.
1560 ** SRFI-1 list-set optimizations
1562 lset-adjoin and lset-union now have fast paths for eq? sets.
1564 ** `memq', `memv' optimizations
1566 These procedures are now at least twice as fast than in 2.0.1.
1570 ** Deprecate scm_whash API
1572 `scm_whash_get_handle', `SCM_WHASHFOUNDP', `SCM_WHASHREF',
1573 `SCM_WHASHSET', `scm_whash_create_handle', `scm_whash_lookup', and
1574 `scm_whash_insert' are now deprecated. Use the normal hash table API
1577 ** Deprecate scm_struct_table
1579 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME',
1580 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS',
1581 `scm_struct_table', and `scm_struct_create_handle' are now deprecated.
1582 These routines formed part of the internals of the map between structs
1585 ** Deprecate scm_internal_dynamic_wind
1587 The `scm_t_inner' type and `scm_internal_dynamic_wind' are deprecated,
1588 as the `scm_dynwind' API is better, and this API encourages users to
1589 stuff SCM values into pointers.
1591 ** Deprecate scm_immutable_cell, scm_immutable_double_cell
1593 These routines are deprecated, as the GC_STUBBORN API doesn't do
1598 Andreas Rottman kindly transcribed the missing parts of the `(rnrs io
1599 ports)' documentation from the R6RS documentation. Thanks Andreas!
1603 ** Fix double-loading of script in -ds case
1604 ** -x error message fix
1605 ** iconveh-related cross-compilation fixes
1606 ** Fix small integer return value packing on big endian machines.
1607 ** Fix hash-set! in weak-value table from non-immediate to immediate
1608 ** Fix call-with-input-file & relatives for multiple values
1609 ** Fix `hash' for inf and nan
1610 ** Fix libguile internal type errors caught by typing-strictness==2
1611 ** Fix compile error in MinGW fstat socket detection
1612 ** Fix generation of auto-compiled file names on MinGW
1613 ** Fix multithreaded access to internal hash tables
1614 ** Emit a 1-based line number in error messages
1615 ** Fix define-module ordering
1616 ** Fix several POSIX functions to use the locale encoding
1617 ** Add type and range checks to the complex generalized vector accessors
1618 ** Fix unaligned accesses for bytevectors of complex numbers
1620 ** Fix erroneous VM stack overflow for canceled threads
1623 Changes in 2.0.1 (since 2.0.0):
1627 ** guile.m4 supports linking with rpath
1629 The GUILE_FLAGS macro now sets GUILE_LIBS and GUILE_LTLIBS, which
1630 include appropriate directives to the linker to include libguile-2.0.so
1631 in the runtime library lookup path.
1633 ** `begin' expands macros in its body before other expressions
1635 This enables support for programs like the following:
1640 (or (= x 0) (odd? (- x 1)))))
1643 ((odd? x) (not (even? x)))))
1646 ** REPL reader usability enhancements
1648 The REPL now flushes input after a read error, which should prevent one
1649 error from causing other errors. The REPL also now interprets comments
1652 ** REPL output has configurable width
1654 The REPL now defaults to output with the current terminal's width, in
1655 columns. See "Debug Commands" in the manual for more information on
1658 ** Better C access to the module system
1660 Guile now has convenient C accessors to look up variables or values in
1661 modules and their public interfaces. See `scm_c_public_ref' and friends
1662 in "Accessing Modules from C" in the manual.
1664 ** Added `scm_call_5', `scm_call_6'
1666 See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
1668 ** Added `scm_from_latin1_keyword', `scm_from_utf8_keyword'
1670 See "Keyword Procedures" in the manual, for more. Note that
1671 `scm_from_locale_keyword' should not be used when the name is a C string
1674 ** R6RS unicode and string I/O work
1676 Added efficient implementations of `get-string-n' and `get-string-n!'
1677 for binary ports. Exported `current-input-port', `current-output-port'
1678 and `current-error-port' from `(rnrs io ports)', and enhanced support
1681 ** Added `pointer->scm', `scm->pointer' to `(system foreign)'
1683 These procedure are useful if one needs to pass and receive SCM values
1684 to and from foreign functions. See "Foreign Variables" in the manual,
1687 ** Added `heap-allocated-since-gc' to `(gc-stats)'
1689 Also fixed the long-standing bug in the REPL `,stat' command.
1691 ** Add `on-error' REPL option
1693 This option controls what happens when an error occurs at the REPL, and
1694 defaults to `debug', indicating that Guile should enter the debugger.
1695 Other values include `report', which will simply print a backtrace
1696 without entering the debugger. See "System Commands" in the manual.
1698 ** Enforce immutability of string literals
1700 Attempting to mutate a string literal now causes a runtime error.
1702 ** Fix pthread redirection
1704 Guile 2.0.0 shipped with headers that, if configured with pthread
1705 support, would re-define `pthread_create', `pthread_join', and other API
1706 to redirect to the BDW-GC wrappers, `GC_pthread_create', etc. This was
1707 unintended, and not necessary: because threads must enter Guile with
1708 `scm_with_guile', Guile can handle thread registration itself, without
1709 needing to make the GC aware of all threads. This oversight has been
1712 ** `with-continuation-barrier' now unwinds on `quit'
1714 A throw to `quit' in a continuation barrier will cause Guile to exit.
1715 Before, it would do so before unwinding to the barrier, which would
1716 prevent cleanup handlers from running. This has been fixed so that it
1717 exits only after unwinding.
1719 ** `string->pointer' and `pointer->string' have optional encoding arg
1721 This allows users of the FFI to more easily deal in strings with
1722 particular (non-locale) encodings, like "utf-8". See "Void Pointers and
1723 Byte Access" in the manual, for more.
1725 ** R6RS fixnum arithmetic optimizations
1727 R6RS fixnum operations are are still slower than generic arithmetic,
1730 ** New procedure: `define-inlinable'
1732 See "Inlinable Procedures" in the manual, for more.
1734 ** New procedure: `exact-integer-sqrt'
1736 See "Integer Operations" in the manual, for more.
1738 ** "Extended read syntax" for symbols parses better
1740 In #{foo}# symbols, backslashes are now treated as escapes, as the
1741 symbol-printing code intended. Additionally, "\x" within #{foo}# is now
1742 interpreted as starting an R6RS hex escape. This is backward compatible
1743 because the symbol printer would never produce a "\x" before. The
1744 printer also works better too.
1746 ** Added `--fresh-auto-compile' option
1748 This allows a user to invalidate the auto-compilation cache. It's
1749 usually not needed. See "Compilation" in the manual, for a discussion.
1753 ** GOOPS documentation updates
1757 Thanks to Mark Harig for improvements to guile.1.
1759 ** SRFI-23 documented
1761 The humble `error' SRFI now has an entry in the manual.
1765 ** `(ice-9 binary-ports)': "R6RS I/O Ports", in the manual
1766 ** `(ice-9 eval-string)': "Fly Evaluation", in the manual
1767 ** `(ice-9 command-line)', not documented yet
1771 ** Fixed `iconv_t' memory leak on close-port
1772 ** Fixed some leaks with weak hash tables
1773 ** Export `vhash-delq' and `vhash-delv' from `(ice-9 vlist)'
1774 ** `after-gc-hook' works again
1775 ** `define-record-type' now allowed in nested contexts
1776 ** `exact-integer-sqrt' now handles large integers correctly
1777 ** Fixed C extension examples in manual
1778 ** `vhash-delete' honors HASH argument
1779 ** Make `locale-digit-grouping' more robust
1780 ** Default exception printer robustness fixes
1781 ** Fix presence of non-I CPPFLAGS in `guile-2.0.pc'
1782 ** `read' updates line/column numbers when reading SCSH block comments
1783 ** Fix imports of multiple custom interfaces of same module
1784 ** Fix encoding scanning for non-seekable ports
1785 ** Fix `setter' when called with a non-setter generic
1786 ** Fix f32 and f64 bytevectors to not accept rationals
1787 ** Fix description of the R6RS `finite?' in manual
1788 ** Quotient, remainder and modulo accept inexact integers again
1789 ** Fix `continue' within `while' to take zero arguments
1790 ** Fix alignment for structures in FFI
1791 ** Fix port-filename of stdin, stdout, stderr to match the docs
1792 ** Fix weak hash table-related bug in `define-wrapped-pointer-type'
1793 ** Fix partial continuation application with pending procedure calls
1794 ** scm_{to,from}_locale_string use current locale, not current ports
1795 ** Fix thread cleanup, by using a pthread_key destructor
1796 ** Fix `quit' at the REPL
1797 ** Fix a failure to sync regs in vm bytevector ops
1798 ** Fix (texinfo reflection) to handle nested structures like syntax patterns
1799 ** Fix stexi->html double translation
1800 ** Fix tree-il->scheme fix for <prompt>
1801 ** Fix compilation of <prompt> in <fix> in single-value context
1802 ** Fix race condition in ensure-writable-dir
1803 ** Fix error message on ,disassemble "non-procedure"
1804 ** Fix prompt and abort with the boot evaluator
1805 ** Fix `procedure->pointer' for functions returning `void'
1806 ** Fix error reporting in dynamic-pointer
1807 ** Fix problems detecting coding: in block comments
1808 ** Fix duplicate load-path and load-compiled-path in compilation environment
1809 ** Add fallback read(2) suppport for .go files if mmap(2) unavailable
1810 ** Fix c32vector-set!, c64vector-set!
1811 ** Fix mistakenly deprecated read syntax for uniform complex vectors
1812 ** Fix parsing of exact numbers with negative exponents
1813 ** Ignore SIGPIPE in (system repl server)
1814 ** Fix optional second arg to R6RS log function
1815 ** Fix R6RS `assert' to return true value.
1816 ** Fix fencepost error when seeking in bytevector input ports
1817 ** Gracefully handle `setlocale' errors when starting the REPL
1818 ** Improve support of the `--disable-posix' configure option
1819 ** Make sure R6RS binary ports pass `binary-port?' regardless of the locale
1820 ** Gracefully handle unterminated UTF-8 sequences instead of hitting an `assert'
1824 Changes in 2.0.0 (changes since the 1.8.x series):
1826 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1828 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
1829 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
1830 ** `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
1831 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
1832 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
1833 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
1834 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
1835 ** `(ice-9 futures)', fine-grain parallelism
1836 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
1837 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
1838 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
1839 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
1840 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
1841 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
1842 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
1843 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
1844 ** `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
1845 ** `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
1846 ** `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
1847 ** `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
1848 ** `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
1849 ** `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
1850 ** `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
1852 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
1854 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
1855 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
1856 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
1858 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
1859 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
1860 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
1862 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
1864 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
1865 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
1866 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
1868 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
1870 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
1871 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
1874 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1876 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
1878 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
1879 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
1881 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
1883 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
1884 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
1885 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
1887 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
1888 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
1890 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
1891 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
1892 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
1895 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
1897 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
1898 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
1900 ** Remove old Emacs interface
1902 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
1903 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
1904 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
1907 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
1909 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
1910 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
1911 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
1914 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
1916 ** Command line additions
1918 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
1919 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
1922 ** New reader options: `square-brackets', `r6rs-hex-escapes',
1923 `hungry-eol-escapes'
1925 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
1926 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
1927 parentheses. This option is on by default.
1929 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
1930 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
1931 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
1932 so this option is off by default.
1934 Additionally, Guile follows the R6RS newline escaping rules when the
1935 `hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled.
1937 See "String Syntax" in the manual, for more information.
1939 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
1941 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
1942 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
1943 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
1945 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
1946 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
1948 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
1950 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
1951 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
1952 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
1954 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
1955 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
1956 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
1957 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
1959 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
1960 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
1963 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
1965 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
1968 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
1970 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
1971 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
1972 include `/path/to/lib'.
1974 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
1976 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
1979 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
1981 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
1982 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
1983 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
1984 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
1987 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
1989 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
1990 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
1991 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
1993 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
1995 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
1996 just for the operator position.
1998 ** Expression-oriented readline history
2000 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
2001 input lines. Let us know what you think!
2003 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
2005 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
2006 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
2008 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2010 ** Support for R6RS libraries
2012 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
2013 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
2014 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
2015 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
2016 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
2018 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
2020 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
2021 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
2022 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
2024 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
2026 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
2029 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
2030 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
2031 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
2034 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
2035 mentioned in that compatibility list.
2037 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
2039 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
2040 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
2041 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
2042 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
2044 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
2045 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
2046 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
2047 code, and simplifying debugging.
2049 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
2050 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
2052 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
2053 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
2054 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
2055 both of these situations.
2057 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
2058 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
2059 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
2060 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
2062 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
2064 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
2065 not apply to the compiler.
2067 ** No more `local-eval'
2069 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
2070 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
2071 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
2072 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
2075 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
2076 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
2079 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
2081 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
2082 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
2083 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
2085 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
2086 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
2087 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
2090 Auto-compiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
2091 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
2092 will be created if needed.
2094 To inhibit automatic compilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
2095 variable to 0, or pass --no-auto-compile on the Guile command line.
2097 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
2099 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
2100 in the next prerelease.
2102 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
2104 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
2106 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
2108 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
2110 ** Multicast socket options
2112 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
2113 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
2116 ** `recv!', `recvfrom!', `send', `sendto' now deal in bytevectors
2118 These socket procedures now take bytevectors as arguments, instead of
2119 strings. There is some deprecated string support, however.
2121 ** New GNU procedures: `setaffinity' and `getaffinity'.
2123 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
2125 ** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
2127 See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
2129 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
2131 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
2132 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
2133 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
2135 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
2136 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
2137 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
2138 procedures' docstrings for more information.
2140 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
2141 combining arity and formals. For example:
2143 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
2144 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
2146 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
2149 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
2151 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
2152 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
2153 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
2154 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
2156 ** New language: ECMAScript
2158 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
2159 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
2160 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
2161 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
2163 ** New language: Brainfuck
2165 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
2166 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
2167 languages. See the manual for details, or
2168 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
2169 Brainfuck language itself.
2171 ** New language: Elisp
2173 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
2174 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
2175 Kraft and Brian Templeton, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
2177 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
2179 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
2180 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
2181 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
2182 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
2185 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
2187 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
2188 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
2189 properties. For example:
2195 (procedure-properties foo)
2196 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
2198 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
2201 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
2203 (procedure-properties bar)
2204 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
2206 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
2209 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
2212 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
2214 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
2215 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
2216 like this works now:
2218 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
2219 (define (helper x) ...)
2221 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
2223 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
2226 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
2227 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
2229 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
2231 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
2232 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
2233 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
2235 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
2237 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
2238 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
2239 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
2240 for more information.
2242 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
2244 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
2245 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
2247 ** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
2249 See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
2252 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
2254 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
2255 in the manual, for more information.
2257 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
2260 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
2261 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
2263 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
2265 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
2267 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
2269 It is possible to circumvent this restriction with e.g.
2270 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. Contact the list if you
2273 ** Support for `letrec*'
2275 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
2276 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
2277 manual, for more details.
2279 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
2281 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
2282 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
2287 (define baz (+ bar 20))
2290 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
2291 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
2292 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
2295 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
2296 in earlier Guile dialects.
2298 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
2300 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
2301 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
2302 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
2303 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
2305 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
2306 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
2307 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
2308 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
2311 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
2313 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
2314 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
2317 (define (helper x) ...)
2318 (define-macro (foo bar)
2321 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
2324 (define (helper x) ...)
2325 (define-macro (foo bar)
2326 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
2328 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
2332 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
2334 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
2336 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
2343 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
2344 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
2347 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
2349 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
2350 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
2353 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
2355 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
2356 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
2357 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
2359 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
2361 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
2365 (define-macro (ref x) x)
2368 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
2369 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
2370 macros before code that uses them.
2372 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
2375 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
2377 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
2378 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
2379 (double-literal 2) => 4
2381 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
2382 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
2383 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
2385 (eval-when (load compile eval)
2386 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
2387 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
2388 (double-literal 2) => 4
2390 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
2392 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
2394 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
2395 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
2396 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
2397 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
2400 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
2402 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
2403 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
2405 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
2407 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
2408 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
2409 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
2411 ** Incompatible change to #'
2413 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
2414 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
2415 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
2416 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
2418 ** `unquote' and `unquote-splicing' accept multiple expressions
2420 As per the R6RS, these syntax operators can now accept any number of
2421 expressions to unquote.
2423 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
2425 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
2428 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
2430 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
2431 in the manual, for more information.
2433 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
2434 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
2436 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
2437 works (with compiled procedures)
2439 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
2440 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
2441 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
2442 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
2444 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
2445 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
2446 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
2447 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
2448 number of stack frames.
2450 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
2451 active in the current continuation
2453 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
2454 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
2455 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
2456 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
2458 ** `positions' reader option enabled by default
2460 This change allows primitive-load without --auto-compile to also
2461 propagate source information through the expander, for better errors and
2462 to let macros know their source locations. The compiler was already
2463 turning it on anyway.
2465 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
2467 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
2469 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
2470 through to the expanded code
2472 This should result in better backtraces.
2474 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
2476 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
2478 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
2480 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
2481 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
2484 ** New procedure, `define!'
2486 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
2487 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
2488 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
2489 less verbose than `module-define!'.
2491 ** All modules have names now
2493 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
2494 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
2495 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
2496 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
2498 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
2500 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
2501 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
2502 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
2503 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
2505 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
2506 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
2507 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
2508 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
2509 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
2510 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
2512 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
2513 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
2514 days of Guile's modules.
2516 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
2517 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
2518 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
2519 record accessors appropriately.
2521 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
2522 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
2523 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
2525 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
2526 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
2527 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
2529 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
2530 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
2533 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
2534 namespaces instead of values.
2536 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
2538 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
2539 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
2540 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
2541 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
2543 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
2545 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
2547 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
2549 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
2550 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
2552 ** Modules load within a known environment
2554 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
2555 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
2556 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
2559 ** `load' is a macro (!) that resolves paths relative to source file dir
2561 The familiar Schem `load' procedure is now a macro that captures the
2562 name of the source file being expanded, and dispatches to the new
2563 `load-in-vicinity'. Referencing `load' by bare name returns a closure
2564 that embeds the current source file name.
2566 This fix allows `load' of relative paths to be resolved with respect to
2567 the location of the file that calls `load'.
2569 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
2571 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
2572 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
2573 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
2575 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
2576 values to the expected number
2578 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
2579 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
2580 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
2582 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
2583 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
2584 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
2585 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
2587 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
2588 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
2589 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
2591 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
2594 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
2596 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
2598 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
2599 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
2600 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
2601 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
2602 the interpreter would proceed.
2604 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
2605 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
2606 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
2607 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
2609 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
2611 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
2612 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
2613 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
2614 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
2615 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
2616 you to contact the Guile developers.
2618 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
2620 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
2621 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
2622 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
2624 ** psyntax is now the default expander
2626 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
2627 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
2630 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
2631 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
2632 code in question was memoized.
2634 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
2635 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
2636 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
2637 `x432' instead of `x'.
2639 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
2640 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
2641 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
2642 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
2644 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
2646 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
2647 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
2648 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
2651 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
2652 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
2653 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
2654 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
2656 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
2658 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
2659 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
2660 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
2661 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
2664 (syntax-rules (else)
2665 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
2668 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
2669 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
2670 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
2672 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
2673 by nonhygienic macros.
2675 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
2676 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
2679 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
2680 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
2681 (define-macro (ref x)
2683 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
2688 (define-syntax bind-x
2690 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
2691 (define-macro (ref x)
2693 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
2695 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
2696 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
2697 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
2698 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
2699 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
2700 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
2702 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
2704 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
2705 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
2707 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
2708 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
2711 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
2713 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
2714 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
2715 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
2716 transformer procedures.
2718 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
2720 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
2721 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
2722 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
2724 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
2726 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
2727 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
2728 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
2729 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
2731 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
2733 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
2734 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
2735 arity that the function has, in the same format as the old arity
2738 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
2740 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
2741 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
2742 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
2743 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
2745 ** New syntax: define-once
2747 `define-once' is like Lisp's `defvar': it creates a toplevel binding,
2748 but only if one does not exist already.
2750 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
2752 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
2753 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
2754 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
2757 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
2758 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
2759 documentation for more details.
2761 ** Better pretty-printing
2763 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
2764 macros like `quote' are printed better.
2766 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
2768 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
2769 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
2771 Also, it used to be that you could omit passing a port to `format', in
2772 some cases. This still works, but has been formally deprecated.
2774 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
2776 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
2777 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
2778 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
2779 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
2780 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
2781 addressed by element and not by byte.
2783 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
2784 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
2785 endianness, as one would expect.
2787 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
2788 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
2789 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
2790 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
2793 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
2794 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
2796 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
2797 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
2799 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
2801 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
2803 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
2804 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
2805 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
2807 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
2808 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
2810 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
2812 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
2814 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
2815 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
2817 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
2819 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
2820 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
2823 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
2825 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
2826 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
2828 ** Changes and bugfixes in numerics code
2830 *** Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operators
2832 Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operator pairs with
2833 different semantics than the R5RS operators. They support not only
2834 integers, but all reals, including exact rationals and inexact
2835 floating point numbers.
2837 These procedures accept two real numbers N and D, where the divisor D
2838 must be non-zero. Each set of operators computes an integer quotient
2839 Q and a real remainder R such that N = Q*D + R and |R| < |D|. They
2840 differ only in how N/D is rounded to produce Q.
2842 `euclidean-quotient' returns the integer Q and `euclidean-remainder'
2843 returns the real R such that N = Q*D + R and 0 <= R < |D|. `euclidean/'
2844 returns both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each
2845 separately. Note that when D > 0, `euclidean-quotient' returns
2846 floor(N/D), and when D < 0 it returns ceiling(N/D).
2848 `centered-quotient', `centered-remainder', and `centered/' are similar
2849 except that the range of remainders is -abs(D/2) <= R < abs(D/2), and
2850 `centered-quotient' rounds N/D to the nearest integer. Note that these
2851 operators are equivalent to the R6RS integer division operators `div',
2852 `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', and `div0-and-mod0'.
2854 `floor-quotient' and `floor-remainder' compute Q and R, respectively,
2855 where Q has been rounded toward negative infinity. `floor/' returns
2856 both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each separately.
2857 Note that when applied to integers, `floor-remainder' is equivalent to
2858 the R5RS integer-only `modulo' operator. `ceiling-quotient',
2859 `ceiling-remainder', and `ceiling/' are similar except that Q is
2860 rounded toward positive infinity.
2862 For `truncate-quotient', `truncate-remainder', and `truncate/', Q is
2863 rounded toward zero. Note that when applied to integers,
2864 `truncate-quotient' and `truncate-remainder' are equivalent to the
2865 R5RS integer-only operators `quotient' and `remainder'.
2867 For `round-quotient', `round-remainder', and `round/', Q is rounded to
2868 the nearest integer, with ties going to the nearest even integer.
2870 *** Complex number changes
2872 Guile is now able to represent non-real complex numbers whose
2873 imaginary part is an _inexact_ zero (0.0 or -0.0), per R6RS.
2874 Previously, such numbers were immediately changed into inexact reals.
2876 (real? 0.0+0.0i) now returns #f, per R6RS, although (zero? 0.0+0.0i)
2877 still returns #t, per R6RS. (= 0 0.0+0.0i) and (= 0.0 0.0+0.0i) are
2878 #t, but the same comparisons using `eqv?' or `equal?' are #f.
2880 Like other non-real numbers, these complex numbers with inexact zero
2881 imaginary part will raise exceptions is passed to procedures requiring
2882 reals, such as `<', `>', `<=', `>=', `min', `max', `positive?',
2883 `negative?', `inf?', `nan?', `finite?', etc.
2885 **** `make-rectangular' changes
2887 scm_make_rectangular `make-rectangular' now returns a real number only
2888 if the imaginary part is an _exact_ 0. Previously, it would return a
2889 real number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
2891 scm_c_make_rectangular now always returns a non-real complex number,
2892 even if the imaginary part is zero. Previously, it would return a
2893 real number if the imaginary part was zero.
2895 **** `make-polar' changes
2897 scm_make_polar `make-polar' now returns a real number only if the
2898 angle or magnitude is an _exact_ 0. If the magnitude is an exact 0,
2899 it now returns an exact 0. Previously, it would return a real
2900 number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
2902 scm_c_make_polar now always returns a non-real complex number, even if
2903 the imaginary part is 0.0. Previously, it would return a real number
2904 if the imaginary part was 0.0.
2906 **** `imag-part' changes
2908 scm_imag_part `imag-part' now returns an exact 0 if applied to an
2909 inexact real number. Previously it returned an inexact zero in this
2912 *** `eqv?' and `equal?' now compare numbers equivalently
2914 scm_equal_p `equal?' now behaves equivalently to scm_eqv_p `eqv?' for
2915 numeric values, per R5RS. Previously, equal? worked differently,
2916 e.g. `(equal? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #t but `(eqv? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #f,
2917 and `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f but `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
2920 *** `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' now returns #t
2922 Previously, `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f, although
2923 `(let ((x +nan.0)) (equal? x x))' and `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
2924 both returned #t. R5RS requires that `equal?' behave like
2925 `eqv?' when comparing numbers.
2927 *** Change in handling products `*' involving exact 0
2929 scm_product `*' now handles exact 0 differently. A product containing
2930 an exact 0 now returns an exact 0 if and only if the other arguments
2931 are all exact. An inexact zero is returned if and only if the other
2932 arguments are all finite but not all exact. If an infinite or NaN
2933 value is present, a NaN value is returned. Previously, any product
2934 containing an exact 0 yielded an exact 0, regardless of the other
2937 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
2939 While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, and `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is still
2940 zero, `(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
2941 integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
2942 to be incompatible with R5RS, which would return 0 for all non-zero
2945 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' are more generic, less strict
2947 When raising to an exact non-negative integer exponent, `expt' and
2948 `integer-expt' are now able to exponentiate any object that can be
2949 multiplied using `*'. They can also raise an object to an exact
2950 negative integer power if its reciprocal can be taken using `/'.
2951 In order to allow this, the type of the first argument is no longer
2952 checked when raising to an exact integer power. If the exponent is 0
2953 or 1, the first parameter is not manipulated at all, and need not
2954 even support multiplication.
2956 *** Infinities are no longer integers, nor rationals
2958 scm_integer_p `integer?' and scm_rational_p `rational?' now return #f
2959 for infinities, per R6RS. Previously they returned #t for real
2960 infinities. The real infinities and NaNs are still considered real by
2961 scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
2963 *** NaNs are no longer rationals
2965 scm_rational_p `rational?' now returns #f for NaN values, per R6RS.
2966 Previously it returned #t for real NaN values. They are still
2967 considered real by scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
2969 *** `inf?' and `nan?' now throw exceptions for non-reals
2971 The domain of `inf?' and `nan?' is the real numbers. Guile now signals
2972 an error when a non-real number or non-number is passed to these
2973 procedures. (Note that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite
2976 *** `rationalize' bugfixes and changes
2978 Fixed bugs in scm_rationalize `rationalize'. Previously, it returned
2979 exact integers unmodified, although that was incorrect if the epsilon
2980 was at least 1 or inexact, e.g. (rationalize 4 1) should return 3 per
2981 R5RS and R6RS, but previously it returned 4. It also now handles
2982 cases involving infinities and NaNs properly, per R6RS.
2984 *** Trigonometric functions now return exact numbers in some cases
2986 scm_sin `sin', scm_cos `cos', scm_tan `tan', scm_asin `asin', scm_acos
2987 `acos', scm_atan `atan', scm_sinh `sinh', scm_cosh `cosh', scm_tanh
2988 `tanh', scm_sys_asinh `asinh', scm_sys_acosh `acosh', and
2989 scm_sys_atanh `atanh' now return exact results in some cases.
2991 *** New procedure: `finite?'
2993 Add scm_finite_p `finite?' from R6RS to guile core, which returns #t
2994 if and only if its argument is neither infinite nor a NaN. Note that
2995 this is not the same as (not (inf? x)) or (not (infinite? x)), since
2996 NaNs are neither finite nor infinite.
2998 *** Improved exactness handling for complex number parsing
3000 When parsing non-real complex numbers, exactness specifiers are now
3001 applied to each component, as is done in PLT Scheme. For complex
3002 numbers written in rectangular form, exactness specifiers are applied
3003 to the real and imaginary parts before calling scm_make_rectangular.
3004 For complex numbers written in polar form, exactness specifiers are
3005 applied to the magnitude and angle before calling scm_make_polar.
3007 Previously, exactness specifiers were applied to the number as a whole
3008 _after_ calling scm_make_rectangular or scm_make_polar.
3010 For example, (string->number "#i5.0+0i") now does the equivalent of:
3012 (make-rectangular (exact->inexact 5.0) (exact->inexact 0))
3014 which yields 5.0+0.0i. Previously it did the equivalent of:
3016 (exact->inexact (make-rectangular 5.0 0))
3020 ** Unicode characters
3022 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
3023 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
3024 probably be introduced at some point.
3028 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
3029 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
3030 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
3032 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
3033 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
3034 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
3035 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
3039 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
3041 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
3043 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
3044 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
3045 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
3046 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
3047 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
3050 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
3051 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
3052 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
3054 ** Source files default to UTF-8.
3056 If source files do not specify their encoding via a `coding:' block,
3057 the default encoding is UTF-8, instead of being taken from the current
3060 ** Interactive Guile installs the current locale.
3062 Instead of leaving the user in the "C" locale, running the Guile REPL
3063 installs the current locale. [FIXME xref?]
3065 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
3067 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
3068 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
3069 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
3072 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
3073 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
3074 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
3076 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
3078 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
3080 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
3081 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
3082 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
3083 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
3085 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
3087 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
3088 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
3089 Unicode code points.
3091 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
3093 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
3094 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
3095 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
3098 ** EBCDIC support is removed
3100 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
3101 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
3102 and was unmaintained.
3104 ** Compile-time warnings
3106 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
3107 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
3108 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
3109 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
3112 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
3113 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
3114 `#:warnings' as above.
3116 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
3117 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
3118 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
3120 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
3122 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
3125 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
3127 This slightly improves program startup times.
3129 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
3131 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
3133 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
3135 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
3136 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
3137 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
3138 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
3140 ** New helpers: `print-exception', `set-exception-printer!'
3142 These functions implement an extensible exception printer. Guile
3143 registers printers for all of the exceptions it throws. Users may add
3144 their own printers. There is also `scm_print_exception', for use by C
3145 programs. Pleasantly, this allows SRFI-35 and R6RS exceptions to be
3146 printed appropriately.
3148 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
3150 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
3151 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
3152 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
3153 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
3155 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
3156 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
3157 implement method combinations.
3159 ** Applicable struct support
3161 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
3162 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
3163 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
3164 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
3165 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
3166 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
3167 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
3168 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
3172 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
3173 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
3174 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
3175 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
3176 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
3178 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
3180 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
3181 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
3182 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
3183 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
3185 ** eqv? not a generic
3187 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
3188 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
3189 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
3190 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
3192 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
3194 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
3195 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
3196 functions are deprecated.
3198 ** `getopt-long' parsing errors throw to `quit', not `misc-error'
3200 This change should inhibit backtraces on argument parsing errors.
3201 `getopt-long' has been modified to print out the error that it throws
3204 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
3206 See "File System" in the manual.
3208 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
3210 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
3211 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
3212 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
3214 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
3216 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
3217 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
3218 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
3220 ** Fast bit operations.
3222 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
3223 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
3224 it's for number crunching too.
3226 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
3228 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
3229 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
3230 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
3231 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
3233 ** R6RS block comment support
3235 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
3236 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
3238 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
3240 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
3241 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
3243 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
3244 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
3245 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
3247 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
3248 ;; separate compilation phase.
3249 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
3251 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
3253 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
3255 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
3257 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
3258 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
3259 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
3260 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
3261 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
3264 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
3265 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
3266 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
3267 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
3268 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
3270 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
3272 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
3274 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
3276 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
3278 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
3280 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
3282 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
3283 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
3284 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
3286 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
3288 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
3289 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
3291 ** New readline history functions
3293 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
3294 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
3295 History library functions.
3297 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
3298 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
3300 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
3303 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
3305 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
3306 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
3307 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
3308 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
3309 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
3310 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
3311 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
3313 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
3314 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
3316 The following bindings have been totally removed:
3317 `before-signal-stack'.
3319 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
3320 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
3321 a deprecation warning.
3323 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
3325 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
3326 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
3327 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
3328 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
3331 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
3333 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
3334 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
3335 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
3336 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
3338 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
3339 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
3341 ** `top-repl' has its own module
3343 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
3344 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
3345 left in the default environment.
3347 ** `display-error' takes a frame
3349 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
3350 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
3351 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
3352 information for the error.
3354 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
3356 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
3357 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
3358 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
3360 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
3362 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
3363 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
3365 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
3367 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
3370 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
3372 ** Remove obsolete print-options
3374 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
3377 ** Remove obsolete read-options
3379 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
3380 obsolete, so they have been removed.
3382 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
3384 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
3387 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
3389 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
3390 on their replacements.
3392 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
3394 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
3395 should use Guile with Emacs.
3397 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
3399 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
3400 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
3401 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
3402 `with-throw-handler'.
3404 ** Deprecated: primitive properties
3406 The `primitive-make-property', `primitive-property-set!',
3407 `primitive-property-ref', and `primitive-property-del!' procedures were
3408 crufty and only used to implement object properties, which has a new,
3409 threadsafe implementation. Use object properties or weak hash tables
3412 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
3414 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
3415 and is no longer used.
3417 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
3419 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
3420 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
3422 Additionally, the procedures `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
3423 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
3424 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', and `set-batch-mode?!' have all
3427 ** Add support for unbound fluids
3429 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
3432 ** Add `variable-unset!'
3434 See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
3436 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
3438 * Changes to the C interface
3440 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
3442 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
3443 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
3444 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
3446 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
3447 code easier and less error-prone.
3449 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
3450 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,latin1}_symbol{n,}
3451 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,utf32,latin1}_string{n,}
3453 These new procedures convert to and from string representations in
3454 particular encodings.
3456 Users should continue to use locale encoding for user input, user
3457 output, or interacting with the C library.
3459 Use the Latin-1 functions for ASCII, and for literals in source code.
3461 Use UTF-8 functions for interaction with modern libraries which deal in
3462 UTF-8, and UTF-32 for interaction with utf32-using libraries.
3464 Otherwise, use scm_to_stringn or scm_from_stringn with a specific
3467 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
3469 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
3470 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
3471 available to C. Have fun!
3473 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
3475 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
3477 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
3480 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
3481 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
3483 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
3485 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
3486 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
3487 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
3490 ** Remove old evaluator closures
3492 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
3493 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
3494 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
3495 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
3498 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
3500 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
3501 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
3502 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
3503 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
3504 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
3505 both with the old 1.8 and with the current 1.9 branch.
3507 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
3508 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
3509 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
3510 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
3511 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
3512 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
3514 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
3515 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
3516 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
3517 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
3518 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
3520 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
3521 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
3522 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
3523 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
3524 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
3525 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
3527 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
3528 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
3529 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
3530 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
3533 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
3534 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
3537 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
3539 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
3540 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
3541 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
3542 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
3543 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
3545 ** Remove unused snarf macros
3547 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
3548 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
3550 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
3552 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
3553 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
3555 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
3557 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
3558 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
3560 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
3562 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
3563 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
3564 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
3565 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
3566 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
3569 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
3571 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
3572 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
3573 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
3574 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
3577 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
3578 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
3579 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
3580 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
3582 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
3584 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
3585 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
3586 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
3589 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
3590 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
3591 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
3592 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
3594 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
3596 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
3598 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
3600 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
3603 ** Inline vector allocation
3605 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
3606 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
3607 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
3608 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
3611 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
3613 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
3614 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
3618 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
3619 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
3620 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
3621 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
3622 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
3624 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
3626 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
3627 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
3628 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
3629 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
3630 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
3631 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
3635 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
3636 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
3637 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
3638 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
3640 ** Deprecate trampolines
3642 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
3643 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
3644 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
3645 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
3646 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
3648 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
3650 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
3652 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
3654 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
3655 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
3656 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
3657 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
3659 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
3661 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
3662 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
3663 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
3664 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
3665 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
3666 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
3667 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
3669 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
3671 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
3672 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
3675 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
3676 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
3678 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
3680 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
3681 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
3683 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
3685 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
3686 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
3687 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
3688 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
3690 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
3692 * Changes to the distribution
3694 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
3696 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
3697 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
3702 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
3703 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
3705 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
3707 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
3708 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
3710 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
3712 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
3713 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
3714 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
3717 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
3719 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
3720 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
3722 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
3724 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
3725 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
3727 ** Parallel installability fixes
3729 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
3730 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
3731 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
3733 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
3734 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
3735 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
3738 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
3740 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
3741 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
3742 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
3743 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
3744 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
3746 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
3748 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
3749 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
3750 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
3751 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
3752 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
3753 searched before the global site directory.
3755 ** New dependency: libgc
3757 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
3759 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
3761 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
3762 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
3764 ** New dependency: libffi
3766 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
3770 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
3774 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
3775 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
3776 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
3779 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
3781 * New modules (see the manual for details)
3783 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
3787 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
3788 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
3789 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
3790 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
3791 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
3792 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
3793 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
3794 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
3795 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
3796 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
3797 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
3799 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
3801 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
3802 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
3803 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
3806 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
3809 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
3811 * New features (see the manual for details)
3813 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
3815 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
3817 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
3818 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
3819 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
3821 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
3823 * Changes to the distribution
3825 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
3827 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
3828 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
3830 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
3832 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
3833 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
3838 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
3839 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
3840 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
3841 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
3842 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
3843 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
3844 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
3845 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
3846 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
3847 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
3848 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
3849 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
3850 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
3851 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
3853 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
3854 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
3855 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
3856 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
3857 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
3860 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
3862 * Infrastructure changes
3864 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
3866 The new repository can be accessed using
3867 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
3868 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
3870 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
3872 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
3874 * New modules (see the manual for details)
3878 * New features (see the manual for details)
3880 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
3881 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
3882 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
3884 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
3885 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
3886 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
3887 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
3889 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
3891 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
3892 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
3893 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
3897 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
3898 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
3900 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
3901 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
3903 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
3904 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
3906 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
3907 lead to a stack overflow.
3909 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
3910 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
3911 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
3912 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
3913 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
3914 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
3915 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
3916 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
3917 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
3918 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
3919 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
3920 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
3921 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
3922 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
3923 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
3924 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
3927 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
3931 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
3932 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
3933 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
3934 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
3935 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
3936 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
3937 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
3938 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
3939 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
3940 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
3941 system and library calls.
3942 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
3943 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
3944 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
3945 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
3946 uniform vectors on AIX.
3947 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
3948 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
3949 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
3950 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
3951 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
3953 * New modules (see the manual for details)
3957 * Documentation fixes and improvements
3959 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
3961 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
3962 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
3964 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
3966 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
3968 * Changes to the distribution
3970 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
3972 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
3973 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
3974 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
3976 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
3978 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
3981 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
3983 * New modules (see the manual for details)
3990 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
3991 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
3992 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
3993 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
3994 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
3995 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
3996 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
3998 * Implementation improvements
4000 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
4001 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
4004 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
4006 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
4008 ** set-program-arguments
4011 * Incompatible changes
4013 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
4015 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
4016 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
4017 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
4018 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
4023 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
4024 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
4025 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
4026 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
4027 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
4028 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
4030 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
4031 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
4032 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
4033 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
4034 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
4035 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
4036 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
4037 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
4038 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
4039 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
4040 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
4041 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
4042 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
4043 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
4044 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
4045 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
4048 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
4050 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
4052 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
4054 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
4055 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
4056 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
4057 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
4058 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
4059 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
4067 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
4069 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
4071 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
4073 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
4075 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
4077 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
4079 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
4080 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
4081 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
4083 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
4085 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
4087 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
4088 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
4090 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
4092 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
4093 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
4095 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
4097 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
4099 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
4101 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
4103 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
4105 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
4107 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
4109 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
4111 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
4113 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
4114 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
4115 file was on a different device.
4118 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
4120 * Changes to the distribution
4122 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
4124 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
4126 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
4128 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
4130 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
4132 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
4135 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
4137 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
4138 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
4139 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
4140 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
4141 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
4142 items like the versioned share directory name
4143 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
4145 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
4146 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
4147 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
4148 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
4149 with each micro release during a stable series.
4151 ** Thread implementation has changed.
4153 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
4154 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
4155 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
4156 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
4157 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
4160 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
4161 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
4162 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
4163 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
4166 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
4167 in which case "null" threads are used.
4169 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
4170 "Blocking", and others.
4172 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
4174 This is a milder form of deprecation.
4176 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
4177 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
4178 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
4179 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
4180 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
4182 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
4183 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
4185 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
4187 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
4188 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
4190 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
4193 This SRFI is always available.
4195 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
4197 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
4198 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
4199 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
4200 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
4203 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
4205 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
4206 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
4207 parameters without currying.
4209 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
4211 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
4212 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
4214 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
4215 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
4218 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
4219 with a renaming import, for example.
4221 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
4223 The official version is good enough now.
4225 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
4227 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
4228 provided. Use 'make html'.
4230 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
4232 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
4233 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
4234 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
4235 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
4237 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
4239 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
4242 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4244 ** New command line option `-L'.
4246 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
4248 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
4250 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
4251 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
4253 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
4255 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
4256 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
4258 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
4260 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
4261 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
4264 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
4267 (define-module (demo)
4271 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
4274 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4276 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
4278 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
4279 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
4280 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
4282 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
4284 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
4285 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
4287 ** New function hashx-remove!
4289 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
4291 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
4292 barriers and dynamic states.
4294 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
4295 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
4296 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
4299 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
4300 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
4301 Barriers" in the manual.
4303 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
4304 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
4306 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
4308 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
4309 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
4310 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
4311 variable %load-path.
4313 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
4315 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
4316 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
4318 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
4319 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
4320 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
4322 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
4323 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
4325 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
4326 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
4327 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
4329 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
4330 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
4331 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
4334 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
4335 substrings and read-only strings.
4337 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
4338 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
4341 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
4343 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
4352 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
4353 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
4354 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
4356 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
4357 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
4358 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
4359 on an ANSI terminal:
4361 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
4362 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
4365 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
4367 See the manual for details.
4369 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
4371 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
4374 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
4376 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
4377 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
4378 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
4379 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
4381 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
4382 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
4383 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
4386 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
4388 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
4389 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
4400 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
4404 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
4409 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
4413 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
4417 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
4420 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
4421 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
4422 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
4423 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
4425 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
4426 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
4429 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
4432 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
4436 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
4438 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
4439 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
4440 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
4443 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
4446 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
4448 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
4451 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
4452 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
4455 (define-module (foo)
4460 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
4461 has been detected is to
4463 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
4464 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
4465 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
4468 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
4471 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
4473 to your .guile init file.
4475 ** New define-module option: :replace
4477 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
4480 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
4481 for the core binding `format'.
4483 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
4485 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
4486 a prefix to all imported bindings.
4488 (define-module (foo)
4489 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
4491 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
4494 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
4496 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
4497 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
4498 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
4500 ** New function: effective-version
4502 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
4503 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
4504 to the distribution" above.
4506 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
4508 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
4509 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
4511 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
4513 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
4514 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
4516 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
4518 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
4519 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
4522 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
4524 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
4526 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
4528 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
4529 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
4530 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
4533 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
4534 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
4535 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
4536 'system-async-mark'.
4538 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
4539 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
4541 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
4542 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
4543 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
4546 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
4548 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
4549 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
4552 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
4553 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
4555 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
4556 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
4557 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
4558 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
4559 level for the current thread.
4561 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
4563 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
4565 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
4566 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
4569 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
4571 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
4573 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
4576 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
4578 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
4581 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
4582 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
4583 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
4585 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
4586 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
4587 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
4588 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
4599 ERROR: Numerical overflow
4601 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
4604 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
4606 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
4607 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
4608 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
4619 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
4621 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
4622 them is also done exactly, of course:
4627 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
4628 for exact arguments.
4630 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
4631 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
4633 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
4635 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
4636 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
4637 equal to a floating point number. For example:
4639 (inexact->exact 1.234)
4640 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
4642 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
4644 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
4647 ** New function 'rationalize'.
4649 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
4650 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
4652 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
4655 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
4656 result when both its arguments are exact.
4658 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
4660 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
4661 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
4662 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
4664 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
4666 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
4667 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
4668 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
4670 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
4673 ** pretty-print has more options.
4675 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
4676 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
4677 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
4679 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
4681 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
4682 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
4683 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
4685 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
4687 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
4688 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
4690 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
4692 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
4693 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
4696 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
4698 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
4699 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
4700 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
4701 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
4702 without the soft port blocking.
4704 ** Deprecated: undefine
4706 There is no replacement for undefine.
4708 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
4709 have been discouraged.
4711 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
4712 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
4713 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
4716 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
4718 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
4720 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
4721 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
4722 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
4723 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
4726 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
4727 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
4728 be removed in the next major Guile release.
4730 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
4732 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
4733 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
4734 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
4735 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
4736 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
4737 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
4739 * Changes to the C interface
4741 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
4742 take a 'delete' function argument.
4744 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
4745 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
4747 This is an incompatible change.
4749 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
4751 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
4752 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
4753 --disable-deprecated.
4755 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
4757 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
4758 Scheme values has been added.
4760 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
4761 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
4764 - int scm_is_* (...)
4766 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
4767 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
4769 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
4771 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
4772 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
4775 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
4777 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
4778 scm_from_int for ints.
4780 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
4781 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
4782 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
4784 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
4786 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
4787 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
4788 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
4791 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
4793 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
4795 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
4797 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
4798 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
4799 following alternatives.
4801 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
4802 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
4803 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
4804 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
4806 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
4807 do the validating for you.
4809 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
4810 have been discouraged.
4812 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
4813 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
4816 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
4818 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
4819 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
4822 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
4824 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
4827 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
4830 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
4832 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
4833 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
4835 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
4836 scm_truncate_number should have.
4838 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
4839 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
4841 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
4844 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
4845 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
4846 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
4848 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
4849 easier to use from C.
4851 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
4852 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
4854 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
4855 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
4856 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
4859 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
4860 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
4861 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
4862 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
4865 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
4866 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
4867 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
4868 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
4869 and is thus quite efficient.
4871 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
4873 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
4874 about the character encoding.
4876 Replace according to the following table:
4878 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
4879 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
4880 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
4881 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
4882 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
4883 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
4884 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
4885 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
4886 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
4888 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
4889 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
4891 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
4893 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
4894 now also available to C code.
4896 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
4898 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
4899 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
4900 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
4902 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
4905 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
4907 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
4908 unceremoniously removed.
4910 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
4911 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
4912 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
4914 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
4915 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
4916 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4917 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
4918 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
4919 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
4922 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
4924 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
4925 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
4926 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
4927 manual for more details.
4929 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
4930 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
4932 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
4933 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
4934 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
4936 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
4938 Migrate according to the following table:
4940 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
4941 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
4942 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
4943 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
4944 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
4945 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
4946 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
4948 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
4949 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
4950 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
4951 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
4952 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
4953 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
4954 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
4956 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
4958 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
4959 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
4961 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
4962 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
4963 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
4964 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
4966 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
4968 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
4969 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
4970 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
4972 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
4973 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
4975 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
4976 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
4977 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
4978 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
4980 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
4982 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
4983 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
4984 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
4985 prevent a potential memory leak:
4992 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
4994 mem = scm_malloc (100);
4995 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
4997 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
4998 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
5005 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
5006 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
5010 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
5012 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
5014 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
5015 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
5016 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
5018 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
5019 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
5021 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
5023 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
5025 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
5026 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
5027 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
5029 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
5030 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
5032 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
5033 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
5034 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
5035 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
5038 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
5040 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
5041 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
5042 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
5044 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
5046 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
5047 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
5049 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
5051 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
5052 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
5054 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
5056 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
5057 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
5058 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
5060 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
5062 You should not have used them.
5064 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
5066 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
5067 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
5069 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
5071 This macro is not intended for public use.
5073 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
5075 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
5077 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
5079 Use scm_is_real instead.
5081 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
5083 Use scm_is_complex instead.
5085 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
5087 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
5088 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
5090 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
5091 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
5093 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
5094 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
5096 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
5098 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
5101 ** New function: scm_effective_version
5103 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
5104 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
5105 to the distribution" above.
5107 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
5109 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
5110 arguments are now passed directly:
5112 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
5114 This is an incompatible change.
5116 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
5118 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
5119 function in the init section.
5121 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
5123 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
5125 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
5126 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
5127 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
5128 stays roughly constant.
5130 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
5131 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
5132 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
5133 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
5134 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
5137 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
5138 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
5139 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
5140 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
5142 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
5143 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
5144 objects for every type.
5147 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
5149 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
5151 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
5153 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
5154 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
5155 initializes a new cell (see below).
5157 ** New functions for memory management
5159 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
5160 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
5161 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
5162 cause aborts in long running programs.
5164 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
5165 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
5167 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
5168 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
5169 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
5170 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
5171 details and for upgrading instructions.
5173 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
5174 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
5175 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
5177 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
5179 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
5180 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
5181 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
5182 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
5183 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
5185 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
5186 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
5187 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
5189 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
5190 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
5192 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
5194 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
5195 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
5196 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
5197 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
5198 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
5200 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
5202 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
5205 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
5207 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
5209 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
5211 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
5212 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
5214 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
5216 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
5217 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
5219 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
5220 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
5222 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
5224 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
5226 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
5227 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
5228 blocking it is not well defined.
5230 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
5232 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
5233 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
5234 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
5235 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
5236 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
5237 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
5238 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
5239 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
5240 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
5241 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
5242 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
5243 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
5244 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
5245 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
5246 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
5247 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
5248 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
5249 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
5250 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
5251 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
5252 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
5253 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
5254 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
5255 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
5256 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
5257 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
5258 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
5259 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
5260 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
5261 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
5262 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
5264 * Changes to bundled modules
5268 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
5269 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
5270 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
5271 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
5272 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
5275 Changes since Guile 1.4:
5277 * Changes to the distribution
5279 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
5281 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
5283 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
5284 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
5285 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
5286 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
5287 indicate major changes in Guile.
5289 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
5290 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
5291 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
5292 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
5294 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
5295 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
5296 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
5297 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
5298 micro version number.
5300 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
5302 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
5304 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
5305 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
5307 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
5309 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
5310 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
5311 See INSTALL and README for more information.
5313 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
5315 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
5316 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
5317 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
5320 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
5322 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
5325 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
5327 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
5328 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
5330 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
5332 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
5333 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
5336 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
5338 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
5341 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
5344 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
5346 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
5348 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
5349 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
5350 open-output-string, get-output-string.
5352 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
5354 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
5356 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
5359 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
5361 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
5363 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
5365 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
5366 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
5367 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
5369 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
5371 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
5373 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
5374 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
5383 See README there for more info.
5385 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
5386 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
5389 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
5391 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
5393 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
5395 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
5396 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
5397 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
5399 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
5401 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
5402 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
5403 to be named `and-let*', of course.
5405 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
5406 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
5408 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
5411 (oop goops describe)
5413 (oop goops active-slot)
5414 (oop goops composite-slot)
5416 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
5417 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
5418 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
5420 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
5422 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
5423 in the default environment:
5425 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
5426 %read-line write-line
5428 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
5429 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
5431 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
5433 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
5436 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
5437 can be used for similar functionality.
5439 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
5441 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
5442 it defines two procedures:
5444 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
5446 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
5447 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
5448 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
5451 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
5453 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
5454 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
5455 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
5456 write large strings.
5458 ** New module (ice-9 match)
5460 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
5461 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
5463 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
5465 for complete documentation.
5467 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
5469 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
5470 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
5471 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
5472 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
5474 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
5475 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
5479 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
5480 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
5481 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
5484 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
5487 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
5488 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
5490 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
5491 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
5494 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
5497 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
5499 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
5501 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5503 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
5505 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
5506 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
5507 Scheme programs easier.
5509 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
5510 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
5511 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
5512 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
5513 `cond-expand' when using this option.
5516 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
5517 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
5519 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
5522 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
5524 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
5525 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
5526 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
5529 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5531 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
5533 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
5534 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
5535 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
5536 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
5537 was also ASCII, for example.
5539 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
5541 tag - no replacement.
5542 fseek - replaced by seek.
5543 list* - replaced by cons*.
5545 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
5549 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
5550 (define m (make-safe-module))
5551 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
5552 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
5553 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
5555 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
5557 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
5558 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
5559 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
5561 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
5563 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
5564 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
5565 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
5566 from the issues related to the module system.
5568 *** New function: load-extension
5570 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
5572 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
5574 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
5575 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
5576 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
5578 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
5580 This function registers a initialization function for use by
5581 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
5582 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
5583 support dynamic linking).
5585 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
5587 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
5588 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
5589 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
5590 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
5593 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
5594 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
5595 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
5596 library and initialize it explicitly.
5598 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
5599 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
5601 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
5603 (define-module (foo bar))
5605 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
5607 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
5609 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
5610 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
5612 (scheme-report-environment 5)
5613 (null-environment 5)
5614 (interaction-environment)
5620 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
5622 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
5623 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
5624 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
5625 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
5627 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
5628 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
5629 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
5630 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
5631 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
5632 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
5633 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
5634 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
5635 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
5636 one eval to the next.
5638 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
5639 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
5640 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
5641 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
5642 subforms are at the top-level as well.
5644 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
5645 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
5646 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
5647 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
5648 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
5649 used in a lexical environment.
5651 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
5652 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
5653 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
5654 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
5655 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
5656 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
5658 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
5660 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
5661 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
5662 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
5663 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
5664 new facilities: selection and renaming.
5666 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
5667 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
5668 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
5670 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
5671 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
5673 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
5674 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
5675 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
5677 (remove-if . zonk-y)
5678 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
5680 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
5681 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
5682 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
5683 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
5686 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
5687 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
5688 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
5689 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
5691 (remove-if . zonk-y)
5692 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
5693 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
5695 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
5696 ;; and all four by upcasing.
5697 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
5698 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
5699 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
5701 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
5703 (remove-if . zonk-y)
5704 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
5705 :renamer upcase-symbol))
5707 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
5708 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
5709 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
5711 See manual for more info.
5713 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
5715 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
5716 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
5717 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
5719 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
5721 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
5722 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
5723 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
5725 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
5726 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
5727 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
5728 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
5730 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
5732 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
5733 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
5735 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
5736 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
5737 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
5738 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
5739 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
5742 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
5743 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
5744 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
5745 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
5746 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
5747 successful and #f if it wasn't.
5749 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
5750 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
5751 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
5752 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
5753 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
5755 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
5756 objects are usually permanent.
5758 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
5759 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
5761 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
5763 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
5764 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
5767 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
5771 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
5776 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
5778 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
5779 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
5780 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
5781 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
5783 ** New function `make-object-property'
5785 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
5786 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
5790 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
5791 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
5795 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
5796 source properties eventually.
5798 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
5800 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
5801 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
5802 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
5804 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
5805 will be removed in the next release.
5807 ** New define-module option: pure
5809 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
5814 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
5817 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
5819 Export names NAME1 ...
5821 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
5822 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
5826 (define-module (foo)
5828 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
5831 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
5836 ** New function: object->string OBJ
5838 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
5840 ** New function: port? X
5842 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
5843 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
5845 ** New function: file-port?
5847 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
5849 ** New function: port-for-each proc
5851 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
5852 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
5853 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
5854 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
5855 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
5857 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
5859 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
5860 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
5861 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
5862 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
5863 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
5866 ** New function: close-fdes fd
5868 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
5869 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
5870 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
5871 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
5874 ** New function: crypt password salt
5876 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
5879 ** New function: chroot path
5881 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
5883 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
5885 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
5888 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
5890 Get or set the priority of the running process.
5892 ** New function: getpass prompt
5894 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
5897 ** New function: flock file operation
5899 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
5901 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
5903 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
5906 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
5908 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
5909 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
5910 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
5911 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
5912 of the temporary file.
5914 ** New function: open-input-string string
5916 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
5917 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
5918 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
5920 ** New function: open-output-string
5922 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
5923 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
5925 ** New function: get-output-string
5927 Return the contents of an output string port.
5929 ** New function: identity
5931 Return the argument.
5933 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
5934 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
5936 ** New function: inet-pton family address
5938 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
5939 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
5940 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
5943 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
5944 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
5946 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
5948 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
5949 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
5950 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
5953 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
5954 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
5955 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
5959 Use `identity' instead.
5965 ** Deprecated: return-it
5969 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
5971 Use `string-length' instead.
5973 ** Deprecated: flags
5975 Use `logior' instead.
5977 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
5979 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
5980 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
5981 port-for-each is more flexible.
5983 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
5984 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
5985 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
5987 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
5989 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
5991 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
5993 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
5995 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
5997 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
5998 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
6000 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
6001 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
6003 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
6004 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
6006 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
6008 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
6009 Removed function: builtin-bindings
6011 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
6012 Use module system operations for all variables.
6014 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
6016 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
6019 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
6021 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
6022 The following bugs have been fixed:
6024 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
6025 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
6028 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
6029 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
6030 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
6032 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
6033 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
6035 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
6036 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
6039 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
6040 The expansion used to be like so:
6042 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
6044 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
6046 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
6048 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
6049 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
6051 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
6053 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
6054 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
6055 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
6059 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
6060 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
6062 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
6067 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
6068 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
6070 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
6071 and `d', other keywords allowed.
6072 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
6074 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
6077 * Changes to the C interface
6079 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
6081 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
6082 with "_t". What a concept.
6084 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
6086 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
6088 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
6092 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
6093 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
6095 *** C Functions removed
6097 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
6098 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
6099 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
6100 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
6101 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
6102 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
6103 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
6105 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
6107 Use scm_mem2string instead.
6109 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
6111 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
6113 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
6114 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
6116 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
6118 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
6121 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
6123 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
6125 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
6127 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
6128 Evaluation" in the manual.
6130 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
6132 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
6133 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
6135 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
6137 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
6138 Constructors" in the manual.
6140 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
6142 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
6143 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
6145 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
6147 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
6149 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
6150 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
6151 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
6153 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
6155 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
6157 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
6158 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
6159 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
6162 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
6164 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
6166 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
6167 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
6169 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
6171 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
6172 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
6173 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
6174 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
6176 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
6177 scm_primitive_property_ref
6178 scm_primitive_property_set_x
6179 scm_primitive_property_del_x
6181 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
6182 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
6184 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
6186 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
6187 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
6188 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
6189 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
6191 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
6193 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
6194 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
6195 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
6196 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
6197 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
6198 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
6199 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
6201 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
6202 scm_remember_upto_here
6204 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
6206 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
6208 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
6209 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
6211 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
6213 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
6215 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
6217 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
6219 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
6221 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
6222 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
6223 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
6224 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
6225 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
6226 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
6228 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
6230 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
6232 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
6233 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
6234 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
6236 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
6238 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
6239 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
6240 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
6242 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
6244 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
6245 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
6248 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
6251 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
6252 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
6255 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
6257 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
6259 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
6261 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
6263 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
6265 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
6267 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
6268 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
6269 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
6270 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
6271 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
6272 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
6273 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
6274 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
6275 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
6276 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
6277 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
6278 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
6279 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
6280 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
6281 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
6283 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
6284 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
6285 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
6286 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
6287 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
6288 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
6289 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
6290 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
6291 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
6292 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
6293 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
6294 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
6295 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
6296 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
6297 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
6298 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
6299 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
6300 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
6301 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
6302 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
6303 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
6304 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
6305 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
6306 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
6307 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
6308 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
6309 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
6310 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
6311 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
6313 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
6315 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
6317 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
6318 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
6320 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
6322 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
6324 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
6326 Use scm_string_hash instead.
6328 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
6330 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
6332 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
6334 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
6336 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
6339 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
6340 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
6342 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
6344 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
6346 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
6348 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
6350 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
6352 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
6354 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
6356 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
6359 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
6361 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
6363 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
6365 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
6366 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
6368 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
6369 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
6371 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
6373 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
6374 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
6375 scm_module_define, scm_define.
6377 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
6379 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
6381 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
6382 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
6384 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
6385 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
6386 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
6387 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
6389 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
6390 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
6391 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
6393 Use the new ones from above instead.
6395 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
6397 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
6398 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
6399 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
6401 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
6402 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
6404 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
6405 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
6408 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
6409 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
6411 Use the new functions instead.
6413 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
6416 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
6418 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
6420 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
6423 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
6425 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
6428 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
6430 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
6433 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
6434 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
6435 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
6437 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
6439 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
6440 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
6442 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
6443 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
6444 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
6445 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
6448 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
6450 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
6451 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
6452 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
6453 inexact for an exact.
6455 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
6456 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
6457 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
6460 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
6461 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
6462 accept an inexact argument.
6464 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
6465 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
6467 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
6470 ** New number validation macros:
6471 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
6475 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
6477 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
6478 scm_unprotect_object.
6480 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
6482 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
6484 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
6487 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
6489 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
6493 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
6495 * Changes to the distribution
6497 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
6499 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
6500 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
6501 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
6502 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
6503 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
6504 obtain these programs.
6505 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
6506 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
6508 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
6509 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
6510 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
6511 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
6512 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
6514 However, this approach means that minor differences between
6515 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
6516 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
6517 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
6521 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
6524 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
6525 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
6526 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
6527 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
6529 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
6531 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
6533 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
6534 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
6536 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
6537 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
6539 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
6540 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
6542 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
6543 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
6544 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
6545 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
6547 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
6549 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
6553 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
6554 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
6556 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
6558 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
6559 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
6561 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
6562 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
6563 number of objects of that kind.
6565 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
6567 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
6568 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
6569 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
6570 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
6571 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
6573 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
6575 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
6577 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
6579 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
6582 ** New module (ice-9 time)
6584 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
6586 ** New module (ice-9 history)
6588 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
6590 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6592 ** New command line option --debug
6594 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
6596 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
6598 ** New help facility
6600 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
6601 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
6602 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
6603 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
6604 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
6605 (help) gives this text
6607 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
6608 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
6610 Examples: (help help)
6612 (help "output-string")
6614 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
6616 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
6618 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
6619 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
6622 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
6623 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
6624 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
6627 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
6628 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
6629 use absolute filenames when possible.
6631 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
6632 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
6633 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
6636 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
6638 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
6639 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
6640 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
6641 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
6643 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
6645 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
6647 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
6648 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
6649 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
6651 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
6652 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
6653 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
6655 (read-enable 'positions)
6656 (debug-enable 'debug)
6658 ** Backtraces in scripts
6660 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
6664 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
6666 at the top of the script.
6668 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
6669 The second enables backtraces.)
6671 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
6673 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
6674 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
6675 substantially faster than before.
6677 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
6678 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
6680 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
6681 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
6683 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
6685 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
6686 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
6687 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
6689 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
6690 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
6691 when this hook is run in the future.
6693 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
6694 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
6696 ** Improvements to garbage collector
6698 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
6699 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
6702 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
6703 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
6704 more and more memory for certain programs.)
6706 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
6707 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
6709 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
6710 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
6712 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
6713 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
6714 in order not to need further allocation.)
6716 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
6719 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
6720 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
6721 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
6722 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
6724 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
6726 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
6729 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
6731 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
6734 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
6735 GC in percent of total heap size
6738 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
6739 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
6741 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
6743 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
6744 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
6746 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
6748 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
6749 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
6751 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
6753 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
6754 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
6758 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
6759 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
6761 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
6763 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6765 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
6767 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
6769 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
6771 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
6772 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
6774 (simple-format port message . args)
6775 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
6776 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
6777 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
6778 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
6779 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
6780 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
6781 Does not add a trailing newline."
6783 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
6785 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
6786 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
6788 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
6789 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
6791 ** Deprecated: list*
6793 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
6795 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
6797 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
6798 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
6800 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
6801 is returned as result.
6803 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
6805 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
6807 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
6809 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
6810 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
6813 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
6815 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
6817 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
6818 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
6820 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6822 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
6824 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
6826 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6828 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
6830 Thanks to Greg Badros!
6832 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
6834 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
6835 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
6836 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
6838 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
6841 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
6843 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
6844 the readability of argument checking.
6846 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
6848 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
6850 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
6852 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
6853 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
6854 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
6855 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
6856 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
6857 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
6858 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
6860 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
6862 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
6864 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
6865 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
6867 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
6869 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
6870 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
6873 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
6875 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
6876 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
6877 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
6879 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
6880 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
6881 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
6883 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
6884 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
6885 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
6886 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
6887 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
6888 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
6889 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
6891 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
6892 scm_end_input (object);
6893 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
6894 ptob->flush (object);
6896 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
6897 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
6900 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
6902 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
6904 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
6905 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
6906 removed in a future version.
6908 ** The format of error message strings has changed
6910 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
6911 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
6912 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
6913 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
6915 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
6916 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
6918 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
6921 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
6923 in your configure.in.
6925 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
6930 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
6936 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
6938 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
6942 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
6943 (define make-message string-append)
6945 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
6947 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
6951 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
6956 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
6960 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
6962 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
6963 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
6965 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
6967 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
6968 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
6969 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
6970 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
6971 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
6972 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
6974 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
6975 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
6976 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
6978 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
6979 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
6980 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
6983 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
6984 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
6985 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
6986 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
6987 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
6989 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
6990 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
6991 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
6992 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
6993 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
6994 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
6995 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
6997 Destructors are not yet implemented.
6999 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
7000 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
7001 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
7003 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
7004 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
7005 KEY in the calling thread.
7007 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
7008 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
7009 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
7010 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
7011 associated with the key.
7013 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
7015 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
7016 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
7018 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
7020 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
7021 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
7022 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
7024 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
7026 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
7027 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
7029 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
7031 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
7033 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
7034 returned is undefined.
7036 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
7037 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
7038 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
7040 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
7041 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
7042 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
7044 ** New C level GC hooks
7046 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
7048 scm_before_gc_c_hook
7051 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
7052 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
7053 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
7055 scm_before_mark_c_hook
7056 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
7057 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
7059 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
7060 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
7063 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
7065 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
7066 allocation parameters
7068 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
7069 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
7070 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
7074 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
7075 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
7076 scm_default_max_segment_size
7078 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
7080 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
7081 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
7083 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
7085 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
7086 object and count on the object being protected until
7087 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
7089 The functions also have better time complexity.
7091 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
7092 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
7093 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
7094 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
7095 are no longer needed.
7097 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
7099 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
7100 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
7101 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
7102 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
7104 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
7106 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
7108 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
7110 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
7111 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
7112 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
7113 until this issue has been settled.
7115 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
7117 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
7119 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
7122 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
7124 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7126 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
7127 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
7128 descriptors were checked.
7130 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
7131 atomically written to a pipe.
7133 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
7134 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
7135 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
7136 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
7137 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
7138 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
7139 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
7142 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
7143 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
7144 is changed without calling tzset.
7146 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
7148 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
7149 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
7150 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
7152 (define write-network-long
7153 (lambda (value port)
7154 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
7155 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
7156 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
7158 (define read-network-long
7160 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
7161 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
7162 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
7164 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
7165 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
7167 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
7168 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
7169 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
7170 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
7172 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
7173 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
7174 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
7175 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
7179 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
7181 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7185 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
7186 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
7187 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
7193 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
7194 for a description of available commands.
7196 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
7197 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
7198 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
7200 (debug-enable 'backwards)
7202 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
7203 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
7205 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
7207 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
7209 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
7210 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
7211 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
7212 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
7213 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
7214 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
7217 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
7219 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
7220 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
7221 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
7222 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
7224 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
7225 the file and should not be affected by this change.
7227 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
7229 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7231 ** Readline support has changed again.
7233 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
7234 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
7235 to activate readline is now
7237 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
7240 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
7242 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
7243 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
7244 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
7247 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
7248 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
7249 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
7252 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
7253 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
7254 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
7255 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
7256 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
7257 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
7259 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
7260 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
7262 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
7264 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
7265 object it receives is the same string passed to
7266 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
7267 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
7268 string, not the suffix.
7270 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
7271 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
7272 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
7274 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
7276 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
7277 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
7278 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
7279 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
7282 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
7284 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
7286 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
7287 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
7288 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
7289 appear from left to right.
7291 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
7294 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
7296 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
7297 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
7299 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
7303 *** New function: hook? OBJ
7305 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
7307 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
7309 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
7310 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
7311 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
7313 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
7315 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
7317 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
7319 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
7322 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
7324 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
7325 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
7326 mentioning it here anyway.
7328 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
7330 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
7331 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
7332 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
7333 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
7336 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
7338 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
7340 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
7342 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
7343 otherwise return #f.
7345 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
7347 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
7348 returned by `opendir'.
7350 ** New function: using-readline?
7352 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
7354 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
7356 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
7357 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
7359 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7361 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
7363 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
7364 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
7365 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
7367 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
7369 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
7370 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
7372 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
7374 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
7375 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
7376 documentation slots are not yet used.
7378 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
7380 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
7381 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
7382 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
7387 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
7388 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
7389 (string-append x y))
7391 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
7392 can also be used for concatenating strings.
7394 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
7395 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
7396 be made in a clean way.]
7398 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
7400 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
7402 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
7404 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
7405 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
7407 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
7409 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
7411 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
7413 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
7415 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
7416 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
7417 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
7418 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
7421 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
7423 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
7425 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
7427 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
7429 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
7430 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
7432 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
7434 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
7436 Evaluates the body of a special form.
7438 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
7440 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
7441 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
7442 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
7443 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
7444 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
7445 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
7447 This should not make any difference for most users.
7449 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
7451 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
7452 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
7454 *** New functions for applying generic functions
7456 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
7457 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
7458 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
7459 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
7460 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
7462 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
7464 It is now replaced by:
7466 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
7468 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
7469 binds a variable named NAME to it.
7471 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
7473 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
7474 This might change when we get the new module system.
7476 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
7480 Changes since Guile 1.3:
7482 * Changes to mailing lists
7484 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
7486 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
7489 * Changes to the distribution
7491 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
7493 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
7494 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
7495 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
7496 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
7497 you explicitly specify it.
7499 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
7500 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
7501 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
7502 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
7503 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
7506 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
7507 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
7508 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
7509 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
7511 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
7512 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
7513 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
7516 You can activate the readline support by issuing
7518 (use-modules (readline-activator))
7521 from your ".guile" file, for example.
7523 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7525 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
7526 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
7527 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
7528 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
7530 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
7531 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
7534 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7536 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
7537 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
7538 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
7539 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
7540 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
7541 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
7542 the Guile interpreter or other unwanted results. An example of
7543 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
7555 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
7556 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
7557 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
7558 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
7559 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
7564 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
7565 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
7573 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
7578 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
7579 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
7582 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
7583 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
7584 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
7585 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
7587 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
7589 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
7591 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
7592 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
7594 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
7596 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
7598 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
7599 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
7601 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
7604 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
7606 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
7608 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
7610 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
7612 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
7614 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
7616 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
7617 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
7618 when the hook was created.
7620 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
7621 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
7622 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
7623 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
7624 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
7625 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
7626 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
7627 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
7628 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
7630 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
7631 the dlopen family of functions.
7633 ** New function `provided?'
7635 - Function: provided? FEATURE
7636 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
7637 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
7638 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
7640 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
7642 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
7643 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
7644 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
7645 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
7648 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
7649 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
7650 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
7651 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
7653 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
7654 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
7655 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
7658 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
7659 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
7660 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
7661 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
7662 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
7663 but with the flag set.
7665 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
7667 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
7668 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
7670 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
7671 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
7672 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
7673 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
7674 available Scheme format implementations.
7676 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
7677 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
7678 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
7679 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
7680 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
7681 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
7682 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
7683 output is to the current error port if available by the
7684 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
7687 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
7688 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
7689 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
7690 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
7691 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
7692 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
7693 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
7694 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
7696 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
7697 be executed at a time.
7700 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
7702 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
7703 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
7704 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
7706 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
7707 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
7708 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
7709 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
7710 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
7711 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
7712 general form of a directive is:
7714 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
7716 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
7718 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
7720 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
7721 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
7722 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
7725 Any (print as `display' does).
7729 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
7733 S-expression (print as `write' does).
7737 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
7743 print number sign always.
7746 print comma separated.
7748 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
7754 print number sign always.
7757 print comma separated.
7759 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
7765 print number sign always.
7768 print comma separated.
7770 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
7776 print number sign always.
7779 print comma separated.
7781 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
7786 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
7790 print a number as a Roman numeral.
7793 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
7796 print a number as an ordinal English number.
7799 print a number as a cardinal English number.
7804 prints `y' and `ies'.
7807 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
7810 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
7815 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
7819 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
7822 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
7823 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
7825 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
7828 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
7829 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
7831 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
7834 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
7836 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
7838 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
7841 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
7843 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
7845 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
7848 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
7851 The sign appears before the padding.
7859 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
7861 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
7866 print N page separators.
7876 newline is ignored, white space left.
7879 newline is left, white space ignored.
7884 relative tabulation.
7890 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
7892 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
7895 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
7897 converts by `string-capitalize'.
7900 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
7903 converts by `string-upcase'.
7906 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
7908 jumps N arguments forward.
7911 jumps 1 argument backward.
7914 jumps N arguments backward.
7917 jumps to the 0th argument.
7920 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
7922 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
7923 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
7925 take argument from N.
7928 true test conditional.
7931 if-else-then conditional.
7937 default clause follows.
7940 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
7942 at most N iterations.
7945 args from next arg (a list of lists).
7948 args from the rest of arguments.
7951 args from the rest args (lists).
7962 aborts if N <= M <= K
7964 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
7967 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
7970 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
7976 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
7978 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
7980 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
7981 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
7982 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
7983 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
7984 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
7985 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
7989 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
7993 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
7999 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
8002 Print a `#\space' character
8004 print N `#\space' characters.
8007 Print a `#\tab' character
8009 print N `#\tab' characters.
8012 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
8013 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
8014 must be a positive decimal number.
8017 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
8018 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
8019 be processed by `read'.
8022 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
8023 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
8024 be processed by `read'.
8027 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
8030 prints format version.
8033 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
8034 and format it accordingly.
8036 *** Configuration Variables
8038 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
8039 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
8040 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
8041 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
8044 format:symbol-case-conv
8045 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
8046 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
8047 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
8048 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
8049 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
8051 format:iobj-case-conv
8052 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
8053 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
8056 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
8059 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
8065 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
8066 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
8067 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
8068 `format' padding style.
8071 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
8072 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
8073 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
8074 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
8078 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
8079 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
8080 directive parameters or modifiers)).
8083 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
8084 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
8085 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
8086 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
8087 parameters or modifiers)).
8090 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
8092 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
8094 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
8095 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
8097 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
8098 string-downcase! functions.
8100 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
8101 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
8103 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
8106 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
8109 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
8110 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
8112 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
8114 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
8115 the symbol had be read by `read'.
8117 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
8118 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
8119 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
8120 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
8121 would if STRING were input.
8123 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
8125 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
8126 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
8127 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
8128 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
8131 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
8133 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
8134 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
8137 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
8139 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
8140 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
8142 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
8143 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
8145 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
8146 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
8147 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
8148 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
8150 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
8151 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
8153 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
8154 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
8155 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
8157 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
8158 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
8160 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
8161 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
8162 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
8163 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
8164 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
8166 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
8167 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
8168 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
8169 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
8170 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
8171 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
8173 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
8174 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
8175 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
8178 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
8179 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
8180 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
8181 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
8182 the following grammar:
8183 ((apples (single-char #\a))
8184 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
8185 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
8186 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
8187 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
8188 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
8189 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
8190 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
8191 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
8192 last option in its combination)
8194 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
8195 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
8196 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
8197 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
8199 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
8200 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
8201 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
8203 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
8204 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
8205 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
8207 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
8208 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
8209 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
8210 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
8211 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
8212 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
8213 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
8214 ordinary argument strings.
8216 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
8217 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
8218 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
8219 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
8221 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
8222 as a list, associated with the empty list.
8224 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
8225 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
8226 - a required option is omitted
8227 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
8228 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
8229 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
8230 - an option predicate fails
8235 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
8238 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
8239 (verbose (required? #f)
8242 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
8243 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
8244 (predicate ,string?))))
8246 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
8247 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
8249 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
8250 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
8251 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
8252 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
8255 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
8257 It will be removed in a few releases.
8259 ** New syntax: lambda*
8260 ** New syntax: define*
8261 ** New syntax: define*-public
8262 ** New syntax: defmacro*
8263 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
8264 Guile now supports optional arguments.
8266 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
8267 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
8268 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
8269 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
8270 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
8272 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
8273 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
8274 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
8276 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
8278 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
8279 and examples for `lambda*':
8282 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
8284 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
8285 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
8286 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
8287 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
8288 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
8289 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
8290 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
8291 can be checked with the bound? macro.
8293 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
8295 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
8296 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
8297 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
8298 are given as keywords are bound to values.
8300 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
8301 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
8302 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
8303 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
8304 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
8305 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
8306 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
8307 and until the procedure is called.
8309 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
8311 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
8312 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
8313 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
8314 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
8315 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
8316 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
8317 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
8318 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
8319 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
8320 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
8322 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
8323 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
8324 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
8325 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
8328 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
8330 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
8331 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
8332 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
8333 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
8335 ** New syntax: and-let*
8336 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
8338 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
8339 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
8340 (<variable> <expression>)
8343 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
8344 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
8345 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
8348 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
8349 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
8350 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
8351 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
8352 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
8353 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
8354 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
8356 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
8357 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
8358 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
8359 shadow earlier bindings.
8361 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
8363 ** New sorting functions
8365 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
8366 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
8367 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
8368 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
8370 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
8371 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
8374 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
8375 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
8376 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
8378 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
8379 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
8380 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
8381 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
8383 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
8384 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
8385 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
8386 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
8387 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
8390 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
8391 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
8392 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
8393 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
8394 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
8395 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
8397 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
8398 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
8399 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
8401 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
8402 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
8403 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
8406 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
8407 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
8408 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
8410 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
8411 Added for compatibility with scsh.
8413 ** New built-in random number support
8415 *** New function: random N [STATE]
8416 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
8417 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
8418 returned have a uniform distribution.
8420 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
8421 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
8422 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
8423 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
8424 effect of the `random' operation.
8426 *** New variable: *random-state*
8427 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
8428 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
8429 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
8430 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
8431 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
8434 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
8435 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
8436 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
8437 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
8438 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
8440 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
8441 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
8442 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
8443 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
8444 initialized using SEED.
8446 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
8447 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
8448 range between 0 and 1.
8450 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
8451 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
8452 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
8453 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
8454 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
8455 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
8456 or a uniform vector of doubles.
8458 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
8459 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
8460 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
8461 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
8462 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
8463 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
8465 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
8466 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
8467 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
8468 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
8470 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
8471 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
8472 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
8473 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
8475 *** New function: random:exp STATE
8476 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
8477 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
8479 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
8481 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
8484 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
8485 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
8488 ** New function: make-guardian
8489 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
8490 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
8491 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
8492 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
8493 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
8495 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
8496 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
8497 one object if at all.
8499 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
8500 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
8501 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
8503 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
8504 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
8505 read again in last-in first-out order.
8507 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
8508 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
8510 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
8512 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
8513 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
8514 file position is used.
8516 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
8517 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
8518 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
8520 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
8521 redefined using seek.
8523 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
8524 size is not supplied.
8526 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
8527 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
8529 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
8530 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
8532 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
8534 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
8535 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
8536 and returns the contents as a single string.
8538 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
8539 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
8540 lists in serial order.
8542 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
8543 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
8544 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
8546 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
8547 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
8548 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
8549 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
8551 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
8552 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
8553 and #f if an error occured.
8555 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
8557 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
8558 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
8559 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
8560 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
8562 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
8564 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
8567 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
8569 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
8572 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8576 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
8577 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
8579 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
8580 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
8584 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8586 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
8588 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
8589 binds a variable named NAME to it.
8591 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
8593 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
8594 might change when we get the new module system.
8596 ** The smob interface
8598 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
8599 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
8601 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
8603 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
8607 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
8608 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
8609 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
8610 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
8611 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
8612 will be freed by the default free function.
8614 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
8615 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
8616 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
8617 `scm_make_smob_type'.
8619 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
8620 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
8621 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
8622 `scm_make_smob_type'.
8624 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
8626 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
8627 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
8631 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
8632 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
8633 `scm_make_smob_type'.
8635 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
8636 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
8637 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
8638 `scm_make_smob_type'.
8640 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
8641 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
8642 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
8644 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
8645 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
8646 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
8647 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
8649 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
8650 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
8651 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
8653 *** scm_newptob has been removed
8657 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
8659 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
8660 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
8661 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
8663 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
8664 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
8665 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
8667 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
8668 a string port's buffer.
8670 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
8671 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
8672 function pointers which together define the current random number
8673 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
8674 number library functions.
8676 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
8679 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
8680 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
8683 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
8684 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
8686 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
8687 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
8689 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
8690 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
8693 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
8694 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
8695 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
8696 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
8698 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
8699 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
8700 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
8701 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
8702 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
8703 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
8704 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
8706 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
8707 by libguile and the application.
8709 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
8710 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
8711 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
8712 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
8714 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
8715 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
8717 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
8718 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
8719 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
8721 ** Random number library functions
8722 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
8723 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
8724 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
8726 The default random state is stored in:
8728 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
8729 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
8730 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
8735 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
8737 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
8738 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
8739 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
8740 isn't a random state.
8742 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
8743 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
8745 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
8746 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
8747 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
8748 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
8750 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
8751 Return 32 random bits.
8753 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
8754 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
8756 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
8757 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
8759 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
8760 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
8762 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
8763 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
8765 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
8766 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
8767 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
8771 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
8773 * Changes to the distribution
8775 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
8776 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
8777 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
8780 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
8781 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
8782 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
8784 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
8785 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
8786 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
8787 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
8790 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
8791 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
8792 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
8794 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8796 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
8798 *** Function: batch-mode?
8800 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
8803 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
8805 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
8806 case has not been implemented.
8808 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
8809 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
8810 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
8813 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
8814 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
8816 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
8818 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8820 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
8822 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
8823 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
8826 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
8827 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
8828 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
8829 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
8832 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
8834 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
8835 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
8836 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
8837 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
8838 find those libraries.
8840 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
8841 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
8844 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
8846 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
8847 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
8848 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
8849 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
8851 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
8852 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
8853 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
8857 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
8859 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
8860 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
8861 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
8864 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
8865 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
8866 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
8867 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
8869 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
8870 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
8873 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
8874 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
8875 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
8876 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
8877 compiler where to find the libraries.
8879 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
8880 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
8881 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
8883 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
8884 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
8885 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
8886 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
8887 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
8891 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
8893 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
8894 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
8895 internationalization support.
8897 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
8898 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
8899 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
8900 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
8901 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
8903 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
8904 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
8905 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
8906 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
8907 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
8909 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
8910 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
8911 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
8912 any GNU mirror site.
8914 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
8916 ** New function: add-history STRING
8917 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
8918 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
8919 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
8921 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
8923 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
8924 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
8925 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
8928 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
8929 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
8930 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
8932 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
8934 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
8937 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
8938 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
8941 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
8942 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
8943 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
8944 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
8945 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
8946 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
8948 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
8949 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
8950 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
8951 of the form mentioned above.
8953 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
8954 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
8955 returned in the special `rest' list.
8957 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
8958 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
8960 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
8962 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
8964 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
8966 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
8967 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
8968 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
8969 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
8970 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
8971 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
8972 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
8973 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
8976 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
8978 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
8980 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
8981 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
8984 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
8985 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
8986 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
8990 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
8991 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
8992 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
8993 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
8994 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
8995 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
8996 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
8997 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
9000 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
9002 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
9003 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
9004 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
9006 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
9008 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
9009 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
9011 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
9012 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
9013 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
9015 Why do we have this function?
9016 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
9017 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
9018 primitive, and display it differently, and
9019 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
9020 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
9023 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
9024 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
9027 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
9028 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
9029 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
9030 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
9032 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
9033 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
9036 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
9037 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
9039 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
9041 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
9042 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
9043 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
9044 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
9045 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
9046 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
9047 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
9050 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
9052 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
9053 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
9055 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
9056 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
9057 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
9058 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
9059 properly continue the print chain.
9061 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
9062 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
9063 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
9064 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
9065 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
9066 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
9067 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
9068 print-state, it is simply ignored.
9070 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
9071 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
9072 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
9073 safest to not check for these pairs.
9075 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
9076 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
9077 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
9078 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
9080 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
9082 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
9083 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
9085 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
9087 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
9089 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
9090 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
9091 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
9093 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
9094 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
9095 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
9097 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
9098 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
9099 the following functions and macros:
9101 Function: make-fluid
9103 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
9104 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
9105 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
9106 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
9107 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
9109 Function: fluid? OBJ
9111 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
9113 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
9114 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
9116 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
9117 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
9119 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
9121 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
9122 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
9123 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
9124 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
9125 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
9126 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
9127 modified by `with-fluids*'.
9129 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
9131 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
9132 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
9133 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
9134 should evaluate to a fluid.
9136 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
9138 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
9139 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
9140 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
9141 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
9142 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
9144 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
9147 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
9149 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
9151 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
9153 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
9156 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
9157 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
9158 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
9159 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
9160 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
9163 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
9164 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
9165 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
9167 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
9168 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
9169 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
9171 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
9172 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
9173 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
9174 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
9176 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
9177 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
9178 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
9179 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
9181 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
9182 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
9183 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
9184 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
9186 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
9187 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
9188 their revealed counts set to zero.
9190 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
9191 Returns an integer file descriptor.
9193 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
9194 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
9196 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
9197 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
9199 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
9200 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
9201 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
9203 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
9204 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
9205 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
9207 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
9208 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
9209 default environment inherited by child processes.
9211 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
9212 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
9213 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
9215 The return value is unspecified.
9217 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
9218 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
9219 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
9220 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
9221 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
9223 The return value is unspecified.
9225 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
9226 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
9234 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
9235 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
9238 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
9241 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
9242 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
9243 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
9245 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
9246 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
9247 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
9248 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
9251 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
9252 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
9254 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
9255 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
9256 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
9257 the `environ' procedure.
9259 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
9260 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
9263 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
9264 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
9266 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
9267 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
9268 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
9269 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
9271 *** procedure: times
9272 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
9273 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
9274 return a selected component:
9277 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
9281 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
9284 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
9288 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
9289 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
9293 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
9294 terminated child processes.
9296 ** Removed: list-length
9297 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
9298 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
9300 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
9302 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
9304 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
9306 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
9307 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
9308 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
9309 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
9311 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
9312 extra complexity it introduces.
9314 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
9315 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
9317 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
9318 variable to any non-empty value.
9320 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
9321 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
9323 * Changes to the gh_ interface
9325 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
9326 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
9328 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
9330 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
9331 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
9333 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
9335 ** vector handling routines
9337 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
9338 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
9339 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
9340 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
9341 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
9343 ** pair and list routines
9345 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
9348 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
9350 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
9353 * Changes to the scm_ interface
9355 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
9357 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
9358 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
9359 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
9360 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
9361 site-specific initialization code.
9363 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
9364 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
9365 initialization processes.
9367 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
9368 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
9369 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
9370 initialized properly.
9372 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
9373 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
9374 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
9376 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
9377 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
9378 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
9379 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
9380 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
9382 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
9384 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
9385 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
9386 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
9387 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
9388 objects the smob refers to get marked.
9390 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
9391 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
9392 which look like this:
9395 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
9397 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
9398 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
9401 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
9402 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
9405 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
9407 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
9408 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
9409 you will need to change your functions slightly.
9411 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
9412 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
9413 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
9414 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
9415 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
9417 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
9418 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
9420 int (*free) (SCM port);
9421 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
9422 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
9423 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
9427 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
9428 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
9429 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
9431 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
9434 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
9435 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
9436 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
9438 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
9439 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
9440 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
9443 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
9447 struct timeval *timeout);
9449 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
9450 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
9451 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
9452 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
9453 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
9454 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
9456 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
9457 scm_catch_body_t body,
9459 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
9462 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
9463 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
9464 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
9465 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
9466 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
9467 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
9469 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
9471 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
9474 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
9475 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
9476 spawning threads from application C code.
9478 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
9479 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
9480 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
9481 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
9482 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
9483 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
9485 ** Removed functions:
9487 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
9488 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
9490 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
9492 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
9493 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
9495 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
9497 ** mbstrings are now removed
9499 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
9500 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
9502 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
9504 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
9505 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
9506 their new names and arguments:
9508 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
9509 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
9510 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
9511 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
9514 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
9516 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
9518 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
9521 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
9523 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
9524 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
9525 pass a #f arg to catch.
9527 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
9529 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
9530 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
9533 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
9534 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
9535 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
9536 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
9537 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
9538 reclaim its storage.
9540 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
9541 worrying that some other function you call will call
9542 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
9543 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
9544 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
9545 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
9548 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
9550 * Changes to the distribution
9552 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
9553 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
9556 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
9557 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
9559 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
9560 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
9562 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
9564 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
9565 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
9566 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
9568 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
9570 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
9571 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
9572 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
9573 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
9574 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
9575 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
9577 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
9578 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
9579 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
9582 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
9583 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
9584 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
9585 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
9587 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
9588 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
9589 libraries to your link command:
9591 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
9592 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
9593 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
9594 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
9596 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
9597 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
9598 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
9600 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
9602 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
9603 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
9606 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
9608 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
9609 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
9610 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
9611 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
9612 searched is system dependent.
9614 (dynamic-object? VAL)
9616 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
9618 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
9620 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
9621 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
9623 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
9625 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
9626 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
9627 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
9628 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
9629 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
9632 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
9634 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
9635 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
9636 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
9637 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
9638 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
9640 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
9642 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
9643 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
9645 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
9647 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
9648 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
9649 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
9652 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
9654 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
9655 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
9656 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
9657 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
9659 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
9660 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
9662 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
9664 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
9665 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
9667 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
9669 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
9670 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
9678 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
9680 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
9681 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
9682 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
9683 a more informative way.
9685 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
9686 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
9687 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
9688 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
9689 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
9690 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
9692 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
9693 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
9696 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
9697 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
9698 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
9701 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
9702 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
9703 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
9704 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
9705 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
9706 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
9708 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
9709 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
9710 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
9711 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
9714 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
9715 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
9716 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
9717 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
9718 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
9719 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
9721 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
9722 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
9723 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
9724 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
9725 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
9727 *** regexp functions
9729 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
9730 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
9731 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
9733 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
9734 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
9735 with SCSH regular expressions.
9737 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
9738 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
9739 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
9740 position of STR at which to begin matching.
9742 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
9743 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
9744 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
9745 `string-match' returns `#f'.
9747 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
9748 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
9749 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
9750 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
9751 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
9752 match strings against the compiled regexp.
9754 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
9755 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
9756 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
9757 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
9758 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
9760 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
9762 **** Constant: regexp/extended
9763 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
9764 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
9765 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
9767 **** Constant: regexp/icase
9768 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
9769 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
9771 **** Constant: regexp/newline
9772 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
9774 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
9777 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
9778 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
9779 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
9781 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
9782 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
9783 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
9785 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
9786 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
9787 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
9788 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
9789 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
9792 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
9794 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
9795 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
9796 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
9797 used when different portions of a string are passed to
9798 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
9799 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
9801 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
9802 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
9803 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
9805 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
9806 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
9809 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
9810 and replace them with the contents of another string.
9812 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
9813 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
9814 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
9815 may be one of the following arguments:
9817 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
9819 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
9821 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
9822 the regexp match is written.
9824 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
9825 following the regexp match is written.
9827 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
9828 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
9831 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
9832 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
9833 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
9834 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
9835 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
9836 which should be matched against this regular expression.
9838 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
9841 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
9842 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
9843 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
9844 written out to PORT.
9846 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
9847 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
9848 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
9849 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
9850 will return after processing a single match.
9852 *** Match Structures
9854 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
9855 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
9856 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
9857 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
9858 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
9859 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
9862 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
9863 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
9864 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
9865 information about the original target string that was matched against a
9866 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
9868 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
9869 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
9870 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
9872 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
9873 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
9874 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
9875 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
9876 number N did not match, return `#f'.
9878 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
9879 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
9881 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
9882 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
9884 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
9885 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
9887 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
9888 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
9890 **** Function: match:count MATCH
9891 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
9892 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
9893 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
9895 **** Function: match:string MATCH
9896 Return the original TARGET string.
9898 *** Backslash Escapes
9900 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
9901 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
9902 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
9903 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
9904 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
9905 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
9907 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
9908 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
9909 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
9910 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
9911 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
9912 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
9913 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
9914 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
9916 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
9917 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
9918 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
9919 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
9920 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
9921 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
9922 each match a single backslash in the target string.
9924 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
9925 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
9926 return the resulting string.
9928 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
9929 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
9930 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
9931 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
9932 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
9933 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
9934 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
9935 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
9936 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
9937 translated to the single character `*'.
9939 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
9940 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
9941 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
9942 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
9943 consecutive backslashes:
9945 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
9947 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
9948 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
9949 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
9951 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
9952 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
9953 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
9954 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
9955 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
9956 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
9958 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
9960 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
9961 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
9962 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
9963 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
9964 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
9965 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
9966 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
9967 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
9968 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
9969 cumbersome escape syntax.
9971 * Changes to the gh_ interface
9973 * Changes to the scm_ interface
9975 * Changes to system call interfaces:
9977 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
9980 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
9982 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
9984 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
9987 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
9988 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
9989 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
9990 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
9991 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
9993 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
9994 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
9995 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
9996 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
9997 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
9998 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
9999 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
10002 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
10003 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
10004 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
10007 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
10008 `force-output' on every port open for output.
10010 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
10011 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
10012 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
10013 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
10014 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
10015 installed, you can say:
10017 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
10020 * Changes to the scm_ interface
10022 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
10023 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
10024 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
10025 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
10026 new dynamic roots and threads.
10029 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
10031 * Changes to the distribution.
10033 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
10035 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
10036 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
10037 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
10038 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
10039 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
10040 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
10041 programming language. These are packaged together because the
10042 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
10044 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
10047 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
10048 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
10049 will distribute it.
10053 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
10055 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
10056 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
10058 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
10059 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
10060 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
10061 the (command-line) function.
10062 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
10063 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
10064 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
10066 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
10067 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
10068 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
10069 command line arguments
10070 -ds do -s script at this point
10071 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
10072 -h, --help display this help and exit
10073 -v, --version display version information and exit
10074 \ read arguments from following script lines
10076 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
10077 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
10079 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
10081 (define (main args)
10082 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
10086 (main (command-line))
10088 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
10090 ekko a speckled gecko
10092 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
10093 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
10094 following list of command-line arguments:
10096 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
10098 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
10099 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
10100 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
10101 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
10102 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
10104 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
10106 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
10108 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
10109 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
10112 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
10113 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
10114 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
10115 SCSH) for circumventing them.
10117 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
10118 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
10119 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
10120 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
10122 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
10125 (define (main args)
10126 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
10130 If the user invokes this script as follows:
10132 ekko a speckled gecko
10134 Unix expands this into
10136 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
10138 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
10139 read from the second line of the script, producing:
10141 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
10143 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
10144 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
10146 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
10147 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
10148 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
10149 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
10150 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
10151 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
10152 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
10153 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
10154 it only terminates the argument list.)
10155 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
10156 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
10157 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
10158 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
10159 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
10160 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
10161 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
10162 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
10164 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
10166 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
10167 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
10168 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
10169 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
10170 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
10172 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
10173 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
10174 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
10176 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
10178 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
10179 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
10180 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
10181 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
10184 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
10185 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
10186 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
10188 * Changes to Scheme functions
10190 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
10191 and disabled by default.
10193 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
10194 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
10195 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
10196 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
10198 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
10200 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
10202 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
10203 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
10205 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
10206 (read-set! keywords #f)
10208 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
10209 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
10210 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
10213 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
10214 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
10215 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
10216 `array-index-map!'.
10218 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
10219 support for Scheme functions.
10221 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
10222 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
10223 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
10224 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
10227 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
10228 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
10229 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
10232 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
10233 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
10234 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
10237 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
10238 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
10239 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
10240 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
10241 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
10242 display the result as a prompt.
10243 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
10245 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
10246 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
10247 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
10250 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
10251 procedure of zero arguments.
10253 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
10254 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
10255 argument is bound in the current module.
10257 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
10258 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
10259 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
10260 public bindings into the current module.
10262 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
10263 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
10265 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
10266 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
10268 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
10269 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
10271 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
10272 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
10274 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
10275 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
10277 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
10278 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
10279 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
10280 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
10281 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
10283 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
10284 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
10285 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
10286 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
10288 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
10291 ** Changes to I/O functions
10293 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
10294 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
10295 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
10297 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
10298 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
10299 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
10301 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
10302 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
10304 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
10305 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
10306 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
10307 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
10309 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
10311 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
10312 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
10314 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
10315 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
10316 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
10317 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
10318 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
10321 'trim omit delimiter from result
10322 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
10323 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
10324 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
10326 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
10328 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
10329 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
10331 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
10332 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
10333 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
10334 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
10335 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
10337 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
10338 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
10339 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
10341 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
10342 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
10343 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
10344 above, and defaults to 'peek.
10346 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
10347 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
10349 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
10350 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
10352 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
10354 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
10355 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
10356 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
10357 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
10358 a delimiting character.
10359 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
10361 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
10362 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
10363 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
10364 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
10365 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
10366 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
10368 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
10369 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
10371 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
10372 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
10373 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
10375 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
10376 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
10377 the array to read and write.
10379 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
10380 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
10383 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
10385 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
10388 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
10389 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
10390 Values for COMMAND are:
10392 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
10393 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
10394 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
10395 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
10396 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
10397 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
10398 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
10399 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
10401 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
10403 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
10404 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
10405 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
10406 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
10407 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
10408 corresponding return set will be the same.
10410 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
10413 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
10414 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
10415 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
10416 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
10417 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
10418 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
10419 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
10420 special file being created.
10422 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
10423 clashing with various SCSH forks.
10425 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
10426 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
10427 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
10428 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
10429 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
10430 and originating address.
10432 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
10433 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
10434 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
10436 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
10439 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
10440 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
10443 (status:exit-val STATUS)
10444 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
10445 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
10446 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
10447 this function returns #f.
10449 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
10450 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
10451 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
10454 (status:term-sig STATUS)
10455 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
10456 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
10459 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
10460 a valid STATUS value.
10462 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
10464 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
10465 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
10467 Component Accessor Setter
10468 ========================= ============ ============
10469 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
10470 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
10471 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
10472 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
10473 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
10474 year tm:year set-tm:year
10475 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
10476 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
10477 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
10478 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
10479 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
10481 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
10482 describing the host system:
10485 ============================================== ================
10486 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
10487 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
10488 release level of the operating system utsname:release
10489 version level of the operating system utsname:version
10490 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
10492 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
10493 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
10494 system's user database:
10497 ====================== =================
10498 user name passwd:name
10499 user password passwd:passwd
10501 group id passwd:gid
10502 real name passwd:gecos
10503 home directory passwd:dir
10504 shell program passwd:shell
10506 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
10507 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
10508 system's group database:
10511 ======================= ============
10512 group name group:name
10513 group password group:passwd
10515 group members group:mem
10517 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
10518 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
10522 ========================= ===============
10523 official name of host hostent:name
10524 alias list hostent:aliases
10525 host address type hostent:addrtype
10526 length of address hostent:length
10527 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
10529 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
10530 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
10534 ========================= ===============
10535 official name of net netent:name
10536 alias list netent:aliases
10537 net number type netent:addrtype
10538 net number netent:net
10540 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
10541 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
10542 internet protocols:
10545 ========================= ===============
10546 official protocol name protoent:name
10547 alias list protoent:aliases
10548 protocol number protoent:proto
10550 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
10551 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
10552 internet protocols:
10555 ========================= ===============
10556 official service name servent:name
10557 alias list servent:aliases
10558 port number servent:port
10559 protocol to use servent:proto
10561 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
10562 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
10565 ======================================== ===============
10566 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
10567 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
10568 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
10569 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
10571 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
10572 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
10573 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
10575 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
10576 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
10578 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
10579 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
10581 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
10582 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
10584 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
10586 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
10588 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
10589 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
10590 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
10592 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
10593 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
10594 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
10595 return the remaining characters as a string.
10597 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
10598 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
10599 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
10601 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
10603 * Changes to the gh_ interface
10605 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
10608 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
10611 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
10612 and returns the array
10614 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
10615 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
10616 the user to interpret the data both ways.
10618 * Changes to the scm_ interface
10620 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
10621 symbol's value from C code:
10623 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
10624 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
10625 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
10626 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
10628 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
10629 without assigning them a value.
10631 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
10632 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
10633 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
10635 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
10636 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
10637 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
10639 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
10640 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
10642 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
10643 doesn't actually care about that.
10645 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
10646 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
10647 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
10649 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
10650 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
10651 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
10652 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
10653 which we have just created and initialized.
10655 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
10656 should one occur. We call it like this:
10657 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
10659 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
10660 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
10661 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
10662 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
10663 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
10664 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
10667 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
10668 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
10669 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
10670 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
10671 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
10672 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
10673 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
10674 enclosed variables.
10676 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
10677 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
10678 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
10679 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
10680 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
10683 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
10684 scm_internal_catch, except:
10686 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
10687 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
10688 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
10689 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
10692 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
10693 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
10694 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
10696 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
10697 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
10698 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
10699 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
10702 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
10703 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
10704 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
10706 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
10707 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
10708 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
10709 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
10710 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
10712 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
10713 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
10714 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
10716 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
10717 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
10718 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
10720 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
10721 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
10723 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
10724 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
10725 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
10728 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
10729 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
10730 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
10731 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
10732 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
10733 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
10734 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
10735 interpreter" above.
10737 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
10738 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
10740 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
10741 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
10742 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
10743 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
10744 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
10747 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
10748 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
10750 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
10751 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
10754 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
10755 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
10757 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
10760 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
10761 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
10762 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
10763 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
10764 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
10765 given the following arguments:
10767 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
10769 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
10771 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
10773 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
10776 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
10777 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
10778 command-line arguments.
10780 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
10781 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
10782 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
10783 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
10784 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
10785 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
10788 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
10791 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
10792 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
10794 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
10795 rearranged slightly. They are now:
10797 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
10798 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
10799 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
10800 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
10802 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
10803 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
10805 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
10806 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
10807 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
10808 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
10810 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
10811 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
10813 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
10814 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
10816 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
10818 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
10819 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
10820 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
10823 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
10824 returns a port instead of an FD object.
10826 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
10827 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
10832 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
10835 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
10837 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
10838 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
10839 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
10840 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
10842 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
10844 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
10846 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
10847 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
10848 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
10849 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
10850 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
10851 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
10852 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
10853 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
10854 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
10855 for more information.
10857 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
10858 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
10860 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
10861 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
10862 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
10863 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
10864 following two lines at the top of the file:
10866 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
10869 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
10870 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
10871 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
10873 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
10875 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
10877 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
10880 (display (car args))
10881 (if (pair? (cdr args))
10883 (loop (cdr args)))))
10886 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
10887 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
10888 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
10889 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
10890 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
10891 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
10895 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
10898 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
10901 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
10903 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
10904 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
10905 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
10906 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
10907 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
10910 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
10911 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
10912 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
10913 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
10914 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
10917 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
10920 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
10921 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
10922 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
10925 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
10926 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
10927 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
10929 to see a backtrace, and
10930 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
10931 to see them by default.
10935 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
10937 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
10939 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
10940 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
10943 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
10944 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
10945 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
10946 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
10949 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
10950 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
10951 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
10952 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
10953 functions which inspired them.
10955 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
10956 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
10960 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
10962 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
10964 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
10965 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
10968 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
10969 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
10970 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
10972 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
10973 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
10974 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
10975 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
10976 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
10978 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
10980 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
10981 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
10982 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
10985 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
10988 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
10990 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
10991 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
10992 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
10993 above should serve their purposes.
10995 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
10996 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
10997 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
10998 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
11000 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
11003 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
11004 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
11005 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
11006 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
11008 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
11009 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
11010 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
11011 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
11013 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
11014 for the `read' function.
11017 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
11018 to that of `integer?'.
11020 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
11021 use the R4RS names for these functions.
11023 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
11024 it simply returns the object's property list.
11026 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
11027 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
11028 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
11029 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
11031 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
11033 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
11036 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
11038 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
11039 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
11041 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
11043 void (*main_func) (),
11046 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
11047 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
11048 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
11049 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
11050 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
11052 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
11053 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
11054 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
11055 know which arguments have been processed.
11057 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
11058 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
11059 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
11060 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
11061 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
11063 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
11064 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
11065 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
11066 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
11067 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
11068 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
11069 people from making that mistake.
11071 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
11072 convenient ways to override these when desired.
11074 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
11076 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
11080 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
11083 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
11084 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
11085 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
11086 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
11089 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
11090 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
11091 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
11092 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
11095 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
11096 have been added to the Guile library.
11098 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
11099 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
11100 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
11103 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
11104 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
11105 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
11107 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
11108 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
11109 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
11110 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
11111 argument from the list.
11114 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
11117 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
11118 null-terminated string, and returns it.
11120 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
11121 to a Scheme port object.
11123 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
11124 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
11129 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
11131 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
11132 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
11133 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
11134 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
11135 code as a special datatype.
11137 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
11138 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
11139 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
11140 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
11141 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
11144 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
11145 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
11146 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
11147 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
11148 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
11150 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
11153 Copyright information:
11155 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
11157 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
11158 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
11159 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
11160 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
11162 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
11163 of this document, or of portions of it,
11164 under the above conditions, provided also that they
11165 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
11170 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"