1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the 1.6.x series:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
25 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
27 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
29 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
32 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
34 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
35 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
36 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
37 so the current effective-version is "1.7". The effective version
38 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
39 items like the versioned share directory name
40 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.7.
42 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
43 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
44 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
45 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
46 with each micro release during a stable series.
48 ** Thread implementation has changed.
50 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
51 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
52 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
53 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
54 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
57 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
58 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
59 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
60 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
63 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
64 in which case "null" threads are used.
66 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading"
69 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
71 This is a milder form of deprecation.
73 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
74 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
75 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
76 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
77 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
79 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
80 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
82 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
84 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
85 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
87 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
89 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
90 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
91 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
92 in parallel to other sections.
94 ### move rest to manual
96 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
97 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
98 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
99 serial section (including itself).
101 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
102 inner-most construct is in effect.
104 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
107 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
108 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
109 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
112 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
113 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
114 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
117 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
118 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
119 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
120 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
121 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
122 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
124 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
126 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
127 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
128 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
129 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
132 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
134 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
135 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
136 parameters without currying.
138 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
140 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
141 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
143 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
144 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
147 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
148 with a renaming import, for example.
150 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
152 The official version is good enough now.
154 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
156 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
157 provided. Use 'make html'.
159 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
161 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
164 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
166 ** New command line option `-L'.
168 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
170 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
172 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
173 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
175 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
177 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
178 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
180 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
182 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
183 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
186 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
189 (define-module (demo)
193 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
196 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
198 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
199 barriers and dynamic states.
201 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
202 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
203 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
206 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
207 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
208 Barriers" in the manual.
210 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
211 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
213 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
215 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
216 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
217 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
220 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
222 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
223 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
225 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
226 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
227 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform vectors.
228 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
229 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
231 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
232 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
233 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
235 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
236 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
237 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
240 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
241 substrings and read-only strings.
243 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
244 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
247 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
249 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
258 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
259 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
260 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
262 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
263 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
264 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
267 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
268 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
271 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
273 See the manual for details.
275 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
277 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
280 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
282 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
283 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
284 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
285 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
287 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
288 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
289 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
292 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
294 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
295 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
306 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
310 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
315 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
319 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
323 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
325 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
326 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
327 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
330 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
333 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
335 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
338 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
339 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
347 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
348 has been detected is to
350 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
351 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
352 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
355 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
358 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
360 to your .guile init file.
362 ### move rest to manual
364 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
366 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
368 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
369 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
370 tried until a binding is selected.
372 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
374 check report an error for bindings with a common name
375 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
376 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
377 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
378 and accept the override
379 first select the first encountered binding (override)
380 last select the last encountered binding (override)
382 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
384 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
385 into an <extended-generic>
386 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
388 The default duplicates handler is:
390 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
392 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
393 behavior) can be installed with:
395 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
397 ** New define-module option: :replace
399 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
402 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
403 for the core binding `format'.
405 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
407 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
408 a prefix to all imported bindings.
411 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
413 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
416 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
418 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
419 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
420 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
422 ### move the rest to the manual
424 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
425 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
428 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
429 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
430 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
432 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
433 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
434 generic functions sharing a common name:
436 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
437 :use-module (oop goops)
440 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
441 :use-module (oop goops)
444 (define-module (my-module)
445 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
446 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
447 :duplicates merge-generics)
449 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
452 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
453 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
454 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
457 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
458 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
459 functions, extending its ancestors.
461 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
462 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
463 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
465 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
466 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
467 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
468 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
471 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
472 adding it to the ancestor.
474 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
475 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
477 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
479 ** New function: effective-version
481 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
482 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
483 to the distribution" above.
485 ** New feature, 'futures': future, make-future, future-ref
487 Futures are like promises, but begin execution immediately in a new
488 thread. See the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
490 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
492 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
493 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
495 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
497 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
498 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
500 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
502 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
503 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
506 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
508 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
510 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
512 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
513 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
514 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
517 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
518 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
519 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
522 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
523 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
525 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
526 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
527 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
530 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
532 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
533 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
536 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
537 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
539 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
540 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
541 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
542 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
543 level for the current thread.
545 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
547 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
549 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
550 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
553 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
555 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
557 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
560 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
562 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
565 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
566 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
567 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
569 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
570 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
571 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
572 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
583 ERROR: Numerical overflow
585 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
588 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
590 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
591 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
592 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
603 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
605 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
606 them is also done exactly, of course:
611 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
614 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
615 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
617 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
619 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
620 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
621 equal to a floating point number. For example:
623 (inexact->exact 1.234)
624 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
626 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
628 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
631 ** New function 'rationalize'.
633 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
634 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
636 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
639 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
640 result when both its arguments are exact.
642 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
644 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
645 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
646 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
648 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
650 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
651 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
652 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
654 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
657 ** pretty-print has more options.
659 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
660 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
661 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
663 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
665 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
666 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
667 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
669 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
671 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
672 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
674 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
676 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
677 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
680 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
682 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
683 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
684 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
685 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
686 without the soft port blocking.
688 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
690 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
691 chapter in the reference manual.
693 ** Deprecated: undefine
695 There is no replacement for undefine.
697 * The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
698 have been discouraged.
700 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
701 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
702 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
705 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
708 * Changes to the C interface
710 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
711 Scheme values has been added.
713 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
714 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
719 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
720 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
722 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
724 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
725 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
728 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
730 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
731 scm_from_int for ints.
733 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
734 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
735 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
737 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
739 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
740 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
741 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
744 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
746 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
748 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
750 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
751 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
752 following alternatives.
754 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
755 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
756 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
757 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
759 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
760 do the validating for you.
762 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
763 have been discouraged.
765 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
766 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
769 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
771 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
772 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
775 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
777 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
780 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
783 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
785 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
786 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
788 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
789 scm_truncate_number should have.
791 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
792 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
794 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
797 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
798 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
799 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
801 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
802 easier to use from C.
804 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
805 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
807 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
808 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
809 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
812 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
813 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
814 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
815 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
818 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
819 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
820 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
821 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
822 and is thus quite efficient.
824 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
826 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
827 about the character encoding.
829 Replace according to the following table:
831 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
832 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
833 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
834 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
835 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
836 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
837 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
838 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
839 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
841 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
842 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
844 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
846 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
847 now also available to C code.
849 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
851 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
852 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
853 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
855 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
858 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
860 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
861 unceremoniously removed.
863 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
864 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
865 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
867 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
868 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
869 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
870 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
871 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
872 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
875 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
877 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
878 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
879 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
880 manual for more details.
882 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
883 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
885 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
886 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
887 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
889 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
891 Migrate according to the following table:
893 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
894 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
895 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
896 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
897 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
898 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
899 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
901 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
902 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
903 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
904 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
905 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
906 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
907 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
909 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
911 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
912 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
914 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
915 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
916 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
917 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
919 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
921 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
922 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
923 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
925 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
926 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
928 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
929 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
930 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
931 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
933 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
935 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
936 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
937 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
938 prevent a potential memory leak:
947 mem = scm_malloc (100);
948 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
950 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
951 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
958 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
959 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
963 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
965 ** New function scm_frame_free
967 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
968 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
969 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
971 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
973 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
974 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
975 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
977 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
978 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
980 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
981 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
982 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a frame that locks a mutex,
983 blocks asyncs, or both.
985 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
987 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
988 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
990 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
992 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
993 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
995 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
997 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
998 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
999 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1001 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1003 You should not have used them.
1005 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1007 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1008 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1010 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1012 This macro is not intended for public use.
1014 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1016 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1018 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1020 Use scm_is_real instead.
1022 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1024 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1026 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1028 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1029 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1031 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1032 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1034 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1035 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1037 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1039 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1042 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1044 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1045 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1046 to the distribution" above.
1048 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1050 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1051 arguments are now passed directly:
1053 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1055 This is an incompatible change.
1057 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1059 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1060 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1061 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1063 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1064 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1066 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1068 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1070 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1071 function in the init section.
1073 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1075 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1077 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1078 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1079 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1080 stays roughly constant.
1082 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1083 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1084 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1085 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1086 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1089 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1090 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1091 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1092 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1094 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1095 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1096 objects for every type.
1099 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1101 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1103 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1105 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1106 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1107 initializes a new cell (see below).
1109 ** New functions for memory management
1111 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1112 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1113 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1114 cause aborts in long running programs.
1116 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1117 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1119 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1120 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1121 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1122 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1123 details and for upgrading instructions.
1125 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1126 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1127 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1129 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1131 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1132 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1133 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1134 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1135 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1137 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1138 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1139 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1141 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1142 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1144 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1146 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1147 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1148 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1149 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1150 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1152 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1154 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1157 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1159 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1161 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1163 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1164 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1166 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1168 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1169 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1171 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1172 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1174 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1176 ** SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1178 Use, for example, scm_frame_critical_section to mark critical
1181 SCM_REDEFER_INTS and SCM_REALLOW_INTS are deprecated as well, of
1184 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1186 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1187 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1188 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1189 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1190 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1191 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1192 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1193 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1194 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1195 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1196 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1197 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1198 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1199 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1200 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1201 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1202 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1203 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1204 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1205 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1206 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1207 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1208 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1209 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1210 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1211 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1212 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1213 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1214 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1215 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1216 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1219 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1221 * Changes to the distribution
1223 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1225 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1227 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1228 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1229 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1230 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1231 indicate major changes in Guile.
1233 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1234 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1235 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1236 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1238 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1239 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1240 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1241 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1242 micro version number.
1244 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1246 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1248 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1249 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1251 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1253 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1254 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1255 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1257 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1259 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1260 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1261 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1264 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1266 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1269 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1271 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1272 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1274 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1276 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1277 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1280 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1282 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1285 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1288 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1290 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1292 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1293 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1294 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1296 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1298 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1300 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1303 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1305 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1307 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1309 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1310 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1311 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1313 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1315 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1317 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1318 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1327 See README there for more info.
1329 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1330 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1333 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1335 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1337 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1339 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1340 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1341 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1343 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1345 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1346 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1347 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1349 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1350 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1352 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1355 (oop goops describe)
1357 (oop goops active-slot)
1358 (oop goops composite-slot)
1360 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1361 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1362 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1364 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1366 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1367 in the default environment:
1369 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1370 %read-line write-line
1372 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1373 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1375 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1377 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1380 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1381 can be used for similar functionality.
1383 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1385 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1386 it defines two procedures:
1388 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1390 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1391 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1392 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1395 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1397 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1398 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1399 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1400 write large strings.
1402 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1404 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1405 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1407 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1409 for complete documentation.
1411 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1413 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1414 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1415 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1416 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1418 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1419 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1423 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1424 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1425 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1428 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1431 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1432 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1434 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1435 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1438 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1441 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1443 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1445 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1447 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1449 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1450 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1451 Scheme programs easier.
1453 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1454 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1455 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1456 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1457 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1460 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1461 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1463 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1466 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1468 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1469 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1470 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1473 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1475 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1477 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1478 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1479 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1480 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1481 was also ASCII, for example.
1483 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1485 tag - no replacement.
1486 fseek - replaced by seek.
1487 list* - replaced by cons*.
1489 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1493 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1494 (define m (make-safe-module))
1495 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1496 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1497 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1499 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1501 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1502 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1503 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1505 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1507 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1508 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1509 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1510 from the issues related to the module system.
1512 *** New function: load-extension
1514 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1516 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1518 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1519 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1520 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1522 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1524 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1525 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1526 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1527 support dynamic linking).
1529 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1531 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1532 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1533 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1534 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1537 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1538 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1539 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1540 library and initialize it explicitely.
1542 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1543 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1545 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1547 (define-module (foo bar))
1549 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1551 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1553 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1554 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1556 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1557 (null-environment 5)
1558 (interaction-environment)
1564 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1566 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1567 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1568 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1569 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1571 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1572 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1573 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1574 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1575 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1576 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1577 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1578 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1579 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1580 one eval to the next.
1582 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1583 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1584 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1585 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1586 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1588 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1589 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1590 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1591 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1592 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1593 used in a lexical environment.
1595 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1596 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1597 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1598 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1599 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1600 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1602 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1604 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1605 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1606 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1607 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1608 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1610 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1611 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1612 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1614 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1615 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1617 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1618 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1619 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1621 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1622 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1624 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1625 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1626 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1627 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1630 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1631 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1632 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1633 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1635 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1636 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1637 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1639 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1640 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1641 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1642 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1643 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1645 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1647 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1648 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1649 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1651 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1652 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1653 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1655 See manual for more info.
1657 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1659 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1660 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1661 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1663 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1665 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1666 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1667 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1669 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1670 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1671 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1672 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1674 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1676 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1677 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1679 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1680 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1681 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1682 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1683 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1686 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1687 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1688 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1689 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1690 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1691 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1693 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1694 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1695 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1696 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1697 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1699 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1700 objects are usually permanent.
1702 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1703 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1705 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1707 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1708 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1711 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1715 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1720 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1722 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1723 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1724 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1725 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1727 ** New function `make-object-property'
1729 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1730 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1734 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1735 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1739 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1740 source properties eventually.
1742 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1744 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1745 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1746 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1748 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1749 will be removed in the next release.
1751 ** New define-module option: pure
1753 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1758 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1761 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1763 Export names NAME1 ...
1765 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1766 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1770 (define-module (foo)
1772 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1775 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1780 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1782 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1784 ** New function: port? X
1786 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1787 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1789 ** New function: file-port?
1791 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1793 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1795 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1796 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1797 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1798 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1799 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1801 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1803 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1804 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1805 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1806 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1807 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1810 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1812 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1813 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1814 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1815 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1818 ** New function: crypt password salt
1820 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1823 ** New function: chroot path
1825 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1827 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1829 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1832 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1834 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1836 ** New function: getpass prompt
1838 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1841 ** New function: flock file operation
1843 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1845 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1847 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1850 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1852 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1853 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1854 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1855 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1856 of the temporary file.
1858 ** New function: open-input-string string
1860 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1861 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1862 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1864 ** New function: open-output-string
1866 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1867 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1869 ** New function: get-output-string
1871 Return the contents of an output string port.
1873 ** New function: identity
1875 Return the argument.
1877 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1878 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1880 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1882 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1883 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1884 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1887 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1888 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1890 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1892 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1893 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1894 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1897 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1898 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1899 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1903 Use `identity' instead.
1909 ** Deprecated: return-it
1913 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1915 Use `string-length' instead.
1917 ** Deprecated: flags
1919 Use `logior' instead.
1921 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1923 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1924 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1925 port-for-each is more flexible.
1927 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1928 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1929 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1931 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1933 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1935 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1937 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1939 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1941 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1942 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1944 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1945 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1947 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1948 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1950 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1952 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1953 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1955 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1956 Use module system operations for all variables.
1958 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1960 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1963 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1965 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1966 The following bugs have been fixed:
1968 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1969 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1972 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1973 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1974 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1976 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1977 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1979 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1980 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1983 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1984 The expansion used to be like so:
1986 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1988 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1990 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1992 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1993 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1995 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1997 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1998 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1999 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2003 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2004 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2006 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2011 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2012 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2014 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2015 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2016 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2018 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2021 * Changes to the C interface
2023 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2025 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2026 with "_t". What a concept.
2028 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2030 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2032 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2036 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2037 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2039 *** C Functions removed
2041 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2042 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2043 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2044 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2045 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2046 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2047 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2049 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2051 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2053 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2055 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2057 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2058 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2060 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2062 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2065 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2067 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2069 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2071 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2072 Evaluation" in the manual.
2074 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2076 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2077 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2079 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2081 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2082 Constructors" in the manual.
2084 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2086 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2087 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2089 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2091 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2093 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2094 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2095 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2097 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2099 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2101 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2102 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2103 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2106 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2108 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2110 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2111 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2113 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2115 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2116 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2117 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2118 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2120 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2121 scm_primitive_property_ref
2122 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2123 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2125 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2126 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2128 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2130 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2131 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2132 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2133 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2135 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2137 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2138 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2139 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2140 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2141 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2142 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2143 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2145 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2146 scm_remember_upto_here
2148 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2150 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2152 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2153 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2155 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2157 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2159 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2161 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2163 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2165 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2166 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2167 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2168 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2169 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2170 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2172 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2174 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2176 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2177 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2178 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2180 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2182 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2183 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2184 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2186 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2188 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2189 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2192 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2195 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2196 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2199 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2201 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2203 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2205 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2207 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2209 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2211 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2212 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2213 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2214 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2215 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2216 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2217 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2218 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2219 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2220 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2221 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2222 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2223 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2224 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2225 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2227 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2228 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2229 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2230 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2231 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2232 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2233 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2234 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2235 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2236 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2237 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2238 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2239 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2240 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2241 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2242 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2243 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2244 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2245 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2246 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2247 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2248 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2249 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2250 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2251 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2252 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2253 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2254 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2255 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2257 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2259 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2261 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2262 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2264 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2266 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2268 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2270 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2272 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2274 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2276 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2278 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2280 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2283 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2284 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2286 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2288 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2290 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2292 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2294 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2296 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2298 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2300 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2303 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2305 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2307 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2309 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2310 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2312 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2313 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2315 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2317 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2318 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2319 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2321 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2323 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2325 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2326 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2328 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2329 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2330 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2331 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2333 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2334 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2335 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2337 Use the new ones from above instead.
2339 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2341 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2342 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2343 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2345 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2346 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2348 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2349 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2352 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2353 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2355 Use the new functions instead.
2357 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2360 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2362 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2364 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2367 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2369 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2372 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2374 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2377 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2378 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2379 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2381 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2383 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2384 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2386 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2387 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2388 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2389 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2392 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2394 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2395 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2396 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2397 inexact for an exact.
2399 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2400 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2401 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2404 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2405 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2406 accept an inexact argument.
2408 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2409 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2411 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2414 ** New number validation macros:
2415 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2419 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2421 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2422 scm_unprotect_object.
2424 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2426 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2428 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2431 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2433 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2437 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2439 * Changes to the distribution
2441 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2443 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2444 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2445 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2446 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2447 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2448 obtain these programs.
2449 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2450 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2452 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2453 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2454 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2455 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2456 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2458 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2459 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2460 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2461 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2465 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2468 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2469 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2470 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2471 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2473 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2475 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2477 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2478 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2480 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2481 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2483 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2484 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2486 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2487 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2488 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2489 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2491 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2493 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2497 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2498 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2500 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2502 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2503 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2505 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2506 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2507 number of objects of that kind.
2509 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2511 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2512 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2513 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2514 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2515 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2517 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2519 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2521 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2523 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2526 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2528 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2530 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2532 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2534 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2536 ** New command line option --debug
2538 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2540 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2542 ** New help facility
2544 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2545 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2546 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2547 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2548 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2549 (help) gives this text
2551 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2552 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2554 Examples: (help help)
2556 (help "output-string")
2558 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2560 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2562 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2563 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2566 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2567 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2568 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2571 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2572 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2573 use absolute filenames when possible.
2575 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2576 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2577 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2580 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2582 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2583 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2584 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2585 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2587 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2589 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2591 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2592 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2593 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2595 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2596 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2597 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2599 (read-enable 'positions)
2600 (debug-enable 'debug)
2602 ** Backtraces in scripts
2604 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2608 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2610 at the top of the script.
2612 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2613 The second enables backtraces.)
2615 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2617 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2618 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2619 substantially faster than before.
2621 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2622 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2624 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2625 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2627 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2629 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2630 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2631 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2633 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2634 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2635 when this hook is run in the future.
2637 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2638 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2640 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2642 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2643 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2646 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2647 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2648 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2650 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2651 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2653 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2654 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2656 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2657 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2658 in order not to need further allocation.)
2660 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2663 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2664 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2665 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2666 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2668 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2670 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2673 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2675 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2678 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2679 GC in percent of total heap size
2682 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2683 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2685 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2687 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2688 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2690 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2692 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2693 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2695 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2697 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2698 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2702 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2703 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2705 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2707 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2709 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2711 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2713 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2715 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2716 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2718 (simple-format port message . args)
2719 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2720 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2721 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2722 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2723 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2724 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2725 Does not add a trailing newline."
2727 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2729 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2730 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2732 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2733 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2735 ** Deprecated: list*
2737 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2739 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2741 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2742 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2744 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2745 is returned as result.
2747 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2749 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2751 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2753 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2754 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2757 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2759 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2761 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2762 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2764 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2766 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2768 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2770 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2772 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2774 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2776 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2778 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2779 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2780 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2782 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2785 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2787 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2788 the readability of argument checking.
2790 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2792 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2794 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2796 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2797 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2798 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2799 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2800 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2801 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2802 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2804 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2806 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2808 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2809 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2811 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2813 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2814 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2817 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2819 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2820 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2821 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2823 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2824 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2825 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2827 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2828 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2829 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2830 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2831 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2832 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2833 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2835 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2836 scm_end_input (object);
2837 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2838 ptob->flush (object);
2840 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2841 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2844 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2846 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2848 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2849 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2850 removed in a future version.
2852 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2854 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2855 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2856 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2857 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2859 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2860 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2862 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2865 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2867 in your configure.in.
2869 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2874 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2880 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2882 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2886 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2887 (define make-message string-append)
2889 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2891 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2895 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2900 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2904 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2906 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2907 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2909 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2911 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2912 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2913 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2914 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2915 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2916 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2918 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2919 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2920 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2922 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2923 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2924 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2927 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2928 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2929 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2930 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2931 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2933 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2934 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2935 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2936 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2937 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2938 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2939 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2941 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2943 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2944 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2945 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2947 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2948 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2949 KEY in the calling thread.
2951 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2952 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2953 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2954 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2955 associated with the key.
2957 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2959 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2960 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2962 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2964 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2965 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2966 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2968 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2970 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2971 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2973 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2975 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2977 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2978 returned is undefined.
2980 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2981 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2982 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2984 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2985 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2986 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2988 ** New C level GC hooks
2990 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2992 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2995 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2996 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2997 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2999 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3000 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3001 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3003 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3004 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3007 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3009 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3010 allocation parameters
3012 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3013 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3014 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3018 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3019 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3020 scm_default_max_segment_size
3022 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3024 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3025 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3027 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3029 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3030 object and count on the object being protected until
3031 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3033 The functions also have better time complexity.
3035 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3036 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3037 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3038 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3039 are no longer needed.
3041 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3043 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3044 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3045 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3046 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3048 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3050 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3052 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3054 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3055 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3056 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3057 until this issue has been settled.
3059 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3061 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3063 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3066 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3068 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3070 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3071 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3072 descriptors were checked.
3074 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3075 atomically written to a pipe.
3077 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3078 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3079 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3080 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3081 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3082 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3083 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3086 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3087 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3088 is changed without calling tzset.
3090 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3092 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3093 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3094 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3096 (define write-network-long
3097 (lambda (value port)
3098 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3099 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3100 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3102 (define read-network-long
3104 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3105 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3106 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3108 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3109 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3111 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3112 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3113 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3114 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3116 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3117 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3118 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3119 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3123 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3125 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3129 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3130 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3131 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3137 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3138 for a description of available commands.
3140 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3141 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3142 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3144 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3146 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3147 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3149 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3151 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3153 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3154 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3155 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3156 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3157 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3158 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3161 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3163 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3164 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3165 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3166 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3168 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3169 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3171 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3173 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3175 ** Readline support has changed again.
3177 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3178 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3179 to activate readline is now
3181 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3184 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3186 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3187 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3188 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3191 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3192 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3193 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3196 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3197 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3198 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3199 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3200 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3201 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3203 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3204 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3206 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3208 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3209 object it receives is the same string passed to
3210 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3211 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3212 string, not the suffix.
3214 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3215 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3216 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3218 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3220 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3221 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3222 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3223 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3226 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3228 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3230 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3231 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3232 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3233 appear from left to right.
3235 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3238 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3240 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3241 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3243 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3247 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3249 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3251 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3253 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3254 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3255 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3257 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3259 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3261 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3263 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3266 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3268 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3269 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3270 mentioning it here anyway.
3272 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3274 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3275 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3276 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3277 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3280 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3282 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3284 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3286 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3287 otherwise return #f.
3289 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3291 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3292 returned by `opendir'.
3294 ** New function: using-readline?
3296 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3298 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3300 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3301 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3303 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3305 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3307 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3308 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3309 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3311 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3313 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3314 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3316 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3318 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3319 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3320 documentation slots are not yet used.
3322 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3324 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3325 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3326 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3331 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3332 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3333 (string-append x y))
3335 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3336 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3338 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3339 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3340 be made in a clean way.]
3342 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3344 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3346 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3348 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3349 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3351 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3353 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3355 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3357 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3359 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3360 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3361 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3362 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3365 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3367 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3369 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3371 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3373 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3374 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3376 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3378 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3380 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3382 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3384 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3385 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3386 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3387 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3388 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3389 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3391 This should not make any difference for most users.
3393 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3395 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3396 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3398 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3400 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3401 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3402 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3403 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3404 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3406 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3408 It is now replaced by:
3410 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3412 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3413 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3415 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3417 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3418 This might change when we get the new module system.
3420 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3424 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3426 * Changes to mailing lists
3428 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3430 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3433 * Changes to the distribution
3435 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3437 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3438 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3439 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3440 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3441 you explicitly specify it.
3443 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3444 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3445 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3446 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3447 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3450 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3451 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3452 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3453 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3455 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3456 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3457 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3460 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3462 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3465 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3467 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3469 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3470 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3471 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3472 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3474 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3475 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3478 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3480 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3481 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3482 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3483 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3484 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3485 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3486 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3487 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3499 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3500 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3501 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3502 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3503 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3508 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3509 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3517 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3522 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3523 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3526 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3527 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3528 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3529 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3531 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3533 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3535 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3536 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3538 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3540 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3542 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3543 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3545 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3548 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3550 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3552 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3554 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3556 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3558 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3560 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3561 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3562 when the hook was created.
3564 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3565 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3566 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3567 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3568 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3569 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3570 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3571 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3572 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3574 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3575 the dlopen family of functions.
3577 ** New function `provided?'
3579 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3580 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3581 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3582 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3584 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3586 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3587 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3588 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3589 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3592 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3593 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3594 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3595 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3597 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3598 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3599 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3602 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3603 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3604 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3605 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3606 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3607 but with the flag set.
3609 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3611 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3612 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3614 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3615 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3616 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3617 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3618 available Scheme format implementations.
3620 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3621 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3622 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3623 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3624 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3625 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3626 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3627 output is to the current error port if available by the
3628 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3631 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3632 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3633 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3634 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3635 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3636 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3637 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3638 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3640 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3641 be executed at a time.
3644 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3646 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3647 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3648 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3650 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3651 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3652 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3653 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3654 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3655 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3656 general form of a directive is:
3658 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3660 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3662 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3664 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3665 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3666 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3669 Any (print as `display' does).
3673 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3677 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3681 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3687 print number sign always.
3690 print comma separated.
3692 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3698 print number sign always.
3701 print comma separated.
3703 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3709 print number sign always.
3712 print comma separated.
3714 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3720 print number sign always.
3723 print comma separated.
3725 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3730 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3734 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3737 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3740 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3743 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3748 prints `y' and `ies'.
3751 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3754 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3759 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3763 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3766 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3767 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3769 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3772 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3773 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3775 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3778 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3780 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3782 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3785 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3787 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3789 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3792 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3795 The sign appears before the padding.
3803 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3805 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3810 print N page separators.
3820 newline is ignored, white space left.
3823 newline is left, white space ignored.
3828 relative tabulation.
3834 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3836 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3839 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3841 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3844 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3847 converts by `string-upcase'.
3850 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3852 jumps N arguments forward.
3855 jumps 1 argument backward.
3858 jumps N arguments backward.
3861 jumps to the 0th argument.
3864 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3866 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3867 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3869 take argument from N.
3872 true test conditional.
3875 if-else-then conditional.
3881 default clause follows.
3884 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3886 at most N iterations.
3889 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3892 args from the rest of arguments.
3895 args from the rest args (lists).
3906 aborts if N <= M <= K
3908 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3911 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3914 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3920 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3922 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3924 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3925 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3926 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3927 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3928 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3929 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3933 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3937 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3943 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3946 Print a `#\space' character
3948 print N `#\space' characters.
3951 Print a `#\tab' character
3953 print N `#\tab' characters.
3956 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3957 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3958 must be a positive decimal number.
3961 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3962 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3963 be processed by `read'.
3966 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3967 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3968 be processed by `read'.
3971 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3974 prints format version.
3977 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3978 and format it accordingly.
3980 *** Configuration Variables
3982 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3983 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3984 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3985 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3988 format:symbol-case-conv
3989 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3990 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3991 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3992 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3993 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3995 format:iobj-case-conv
3996 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3997 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4000 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4003 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4009 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4010 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4011 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4012 `format' padding style.
4015 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4016 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4017 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4018 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4022 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4023 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4024 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4027 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4028 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4029 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4030 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4031 parameters or modifiers)).
4034 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4036 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4038 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4039 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4041 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4042 string-downcase! functions.
4044 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4045 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4047 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4050 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4053 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4054 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4056 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4058 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4059 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4061 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4062 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4063 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4064 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4065 would if STRING were input.
4067 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4069 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4070 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4071 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4072 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4075 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4077 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4078 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4081 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4083 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4084 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4086 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4087 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4089 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4090 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4091 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4092 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4094 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4095 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4097 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4098 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4099 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4101 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4102 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4104 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4105 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4106 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4107 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4108 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4110 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4111 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4112 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4113 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4114 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4115 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4117 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4118 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4119 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4122 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4123 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4124 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4125 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4126 the following grammar:
4127 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4128 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4129 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4130 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4131 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4132 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4133 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4134 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4135 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4136 last option in its combination)
4138 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4139 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4140 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4141 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4143 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4144 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4145 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4147 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4148 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4149 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4151 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4152 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4153 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4154 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4155 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4156 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4157 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4158 ordinary argument strings.
4160 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4161 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4162 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4163 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4165 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4166 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4168 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4169 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4170 - a required option is omitted
4171 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4172 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4173 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4174 - an option predicate fails
4179 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4182 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4183 (verbose (required? #f)
4186 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4187 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4188 (predicate ,string?))))
4190 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4191 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4193 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4194 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4195 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4196 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4199 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4201 It will be removed in a few releases.
4203 ** New syntax: lambda*
4204 ** New syntax: define*
4205 ** New syntax: define*-public
4206 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4207 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4208 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4210 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4211 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4212 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4213 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4214 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4216 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4217 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4218 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4220 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4222 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4223 and examples for `lambda*':
4226 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4228 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4229 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4230 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4231 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4232 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4233 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4234 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4235 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4237 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4239 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4240 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4241 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4242 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4244 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4245 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4246 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4247 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4248 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4249 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4250 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4251 and until the procedure is called.
4253 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4255 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4256 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4257 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4258 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4259 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4260 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4261 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4262 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4263 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4264 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4266 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4267 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4268 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4269 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4272 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4274 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4275 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4276 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4277 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4279 ** New syntax: and-let*
4280 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4282 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4283 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4284 (<variable> <expression>)
4287 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4288 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4289 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4292 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4293 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4294 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4295 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4296 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4297 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4298 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4300 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4301 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4302 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4303 shadow earlier bindings.
4305 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4307 ** New sorting functions
4309 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4310 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4311 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4312 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4314 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4315 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4318 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4319 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4320 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4322 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4323 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4324 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4325 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4327 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4328 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4329 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4330 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4331 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4334 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4335 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4336 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4337 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4338 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4339 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4341 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4342 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4343 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4345 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4346 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4347 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4350 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4351 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4352 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4354 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4355 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4357 ** New built-in random number support
4359 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4360 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4361 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4362 returned have a uniform distribution.
4364 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4365 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4366 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4367 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4368 effect of the `random' operation.
4370 *** New variable: *random-state*
4371 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4372 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4373 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4374 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4375 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4378 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4379 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4380 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4381 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4382 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4384 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4385 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4386 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4387 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4388 initialized using SEED.
4390 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4391 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4392 range between 0 and 1.
4394 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4395 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4396 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4397 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4398 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4399 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4400 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4402 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4403 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4404 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4405 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4406 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4407 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4409 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4410 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4411 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4412 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4414 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4415 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4416 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4417 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4419 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4420 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4421 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4423 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4425 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4428 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4429 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4432 ** New function: make-guardian
4433 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4434 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4435 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4436 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4437 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4439 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4440 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4441 one object if at all.
4443 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4444 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4445 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4447 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4448 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4449 read again in last-in first-out order.
4451 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4452 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4454 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4456 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4457 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4458 file position is used.
4460 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4461 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4462 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4464 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4465 redefined using seek.
4467 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4468 size is not supplied.
4470 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4471 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4473 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4474 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4476 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4478 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4479 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4480 and returns the contents as a single string.
4482 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4483 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4484 lists in serial order.
4486 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4487 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4488 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4490 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4491 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4492 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4493 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4495 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4496 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4497 and #f if an error occured.
4499 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4501 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4502 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4503 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4504 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4506 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4508 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4511 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4513 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4516 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4520 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4521 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4523 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4524 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4528 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4530 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4532 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4533 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4535 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4537 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4538 might change when we get the new module system.
4540 ** The smob interface
4542 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4543 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4545 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4547 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4551 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4552 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4553 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4554 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4555 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4556 will be freed by the default free function.
4558 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4559 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4560 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4561 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4563 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4564 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4565 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4566 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4568 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4570 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4571 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4575 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4576 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4577 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4579 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4580 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4581 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4582 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4584 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4585 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4586 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4588 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4589 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4590 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4591 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4593 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4594 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4595 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4597 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4601 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4603 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4604 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4605 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4607 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4608 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4609 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4611 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4612 a string port's buffer.
4614 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4615 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4616 function pointers which together define the current random number
4617 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4618 number library functions.
4620 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4623 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4624 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4627 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4628 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4630 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4631 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4633 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4634 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4637 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4638 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4639 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4640 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4642 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4643 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4644 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4645 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4646 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4647 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4648 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4650 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4651 by libguile and the application.
4653 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4654 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4655 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4656 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4658 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4659 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4661 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4662 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4663 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4665 ** Random number library functions
4666 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4667 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4668 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4670 The default random state is stored in:
4672 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4673 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4674 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4679 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4681 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4682 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4683 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4684 isn't a random state.
4686 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4687 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4689 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4690 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4691 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4692 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4694 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4695 Return 32 random bits.
4697 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4698 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4700 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4701 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4703 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4704 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4706 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4707 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4709 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4710 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4711 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4715 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4717 * Changes to the distribution
4719 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4720 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4721 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4724 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4725 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4726 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4728 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4729 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4730 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4731 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4734 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4735 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4736 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4738 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4740 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4742 *** Function: batch-mode?
4744 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4747 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4749 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4750 case has not been implemented.
4752 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4753 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4754 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4757 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4758 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4760 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4762 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4764 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4766 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4767 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4770 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4771 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4772 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4773 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4776 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4778 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4779 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4780 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4781 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4782 find those libraries.
4784 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4785 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4788 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4790 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4791 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4792 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4793 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4795 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4796 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4797 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4801 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4803 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4804 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4805 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4808 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4809 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4810 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4811 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4813 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4814 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4817 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4818 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4819 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4820 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4821 compiler where to find the libraries.
4823 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4824 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4825 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4827 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4828 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4829 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4830 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4831 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4835 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4837 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4838 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4839 internationalization support.
4841 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4842 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4843 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4844 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4845 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4847 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4848 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4849 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4850 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4851 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4853 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4854 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4855 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4856 any GNU mirror site.
4858 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4860 ** New function: add-history STRING
4861 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4862 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4863 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4865 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4867 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4868 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4869 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4872 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4873 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4874 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4876 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4878 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4881 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4882 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4885 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4886 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4887 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4888 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4889 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4890 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4892 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4893 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4894 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4895 of the form mentioned above.
4897 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4898 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4899 returned in the special `rest' list.
4901 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4902 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4904 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4906 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4908 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4910 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4911 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4912 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4913 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4914 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4915 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4916 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4917 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4920 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4922 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4924 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4925 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4928 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4929 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4930 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4934 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4935 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4936 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4937 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4938 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4939 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4940 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4941 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4944 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4946 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4947 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4948 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4950 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4952 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4953 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4955 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4956 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4957 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4959 Why do we have this function?
4960 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4961 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4962 primitive, and display it differently, and
4963 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4964 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4967 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4968 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4971 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4972 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4973 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4974 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4976 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4977 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4980 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4981 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4983 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4985 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4986 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4987 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4988 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4989 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4990 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4991 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4994 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4996 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4997 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4999 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5000 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5001 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5002 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5003 properly continue the print chain.
5005 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5006 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5007 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5008 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5009 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5010 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5011 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5012 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5014 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5015 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5016 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5017 safest to not check for these pairs.
5019 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5020 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5021 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5022 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5024 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5026 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5027 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5029 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5031 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5033 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5034 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5035 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5037 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5038 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5039 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5041 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5042 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5043 the following functions and macros:
5045 Function: make-fluid
5047 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5048 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5049 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5050 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5051 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5053 Function: fluid? OBJ
5055 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5057 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5058 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5060 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5061 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5063 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5065 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5066 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5067 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5068 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5069 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5070 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5071 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5073 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5075 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5076 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5077 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5078 should evaluate to a fluid.
5080 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5082 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5083 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5084 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5085 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5086 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5088 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5091 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5093 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5095 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5097 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5100 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5101 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5102 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5103 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5104 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5107 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5108 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5109 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5111 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5112 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5113 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5115 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5116 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5117 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5118 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5120 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5121 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5122 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5123 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5125 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5126 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5127 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5128 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5130 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5131 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5132 their revealed counts set to zero.
5134 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5135 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5137 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5138 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5140 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5141 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5143 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5144 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5145 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5147 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5148 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5149 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5151 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5152 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5153 default environment inherited by child processes.
5155 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5156 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5157 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5159 The return value is unspecified.
5161 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5162 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5163 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5164 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5165 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5167 The return value is unspecified.
5169 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5170 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5178 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5179 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5182 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5185 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5186 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5187 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5189 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5190 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5191 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5192 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5195 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5196 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5198 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5199 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5200 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5201 the `environ' procedure.
5203 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5204 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5207 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5208 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5210 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5211 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5212 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5213 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5215 *** procedure: times
5216 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5217 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5218 return a selected component:
5221 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5225 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5228 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5232 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5233 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5237 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5238 terminated child processes.
5240 ** Removed: list-length
5241 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5242 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5244 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5246 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5248 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5250 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5251 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5252 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5253 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5255 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5256 extra complexity it introduces.
5258 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5259 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5261 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5262 variable to any non-empty value.
5264 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5265 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5267 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5269 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5270 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5272 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5274 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5275 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5277 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5279 ** vector handling routines
5281 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5282 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5283 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5284 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5285 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5287 ** pair and list routines
5289 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5292 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5294 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5297 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5299 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5301 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5302 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5303 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5304 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5305 site-specific initialization code.
5307 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5308 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5309 initialization processes.
5311 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5312 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5313 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5314 initialized properly.
5316 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5317 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5318 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5320 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5321 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5322 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5323 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5324 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5326 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5328 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5329 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5330 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5331 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5332 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5334 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5335 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5336 which look like this:
5339 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5341 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5342 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5345 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5346 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5349 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5351 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5352 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5353 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5355 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5356 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5357 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5358 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5359 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5361 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5362 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5364 int (*free) (SCM port);
5365 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5366 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5367 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5371 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5372 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5373 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5375 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5378 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5379 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5380 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5382 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5383 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5384 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5387 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5391 struct timeval *timeout);
5393 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5394 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5395 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5396 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5397 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5398 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5400 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5401 scm_catch_body_t body,
5403 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5406 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5407 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5408 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5409 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5410 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5411 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5413 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5415 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5418 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5419 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5420 spawning threads from application C code.
5422 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5423 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5424 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5425 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5426 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5427 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5429 ** Removed functions:
5431 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5432 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5434 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5436 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5437 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5439 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5441 ** mbstrings are now removed
5443 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5444 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5446 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5448 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5449 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5450 their new names and arguments:
5452 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5453 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5454 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5455 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5458 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5460 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5462 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5465 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5467 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5468 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5469 pass a #f arg to catch.
5471 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5473 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5474 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5477 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5478 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5479 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5480 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5481 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5482 reclaim its storage.
5484 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5485 worrying that some other function you call will call
5486 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5487 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5488 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5489 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5492 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5494 * Changes to the distribution
5496 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5497 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5500 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5501 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5503 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5504 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5506 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5508 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5509 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5510 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5512 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5514 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5515 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5516 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5517 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5518 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5519 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5521 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5522 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5523 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5526 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5527 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5528 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5529 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5531 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5532 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5533 libraries to your link command:
5535 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5536 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5537 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5538 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5540 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5541 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5542 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5544 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5546 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5547 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5550 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5552 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5553 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5554 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5555 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5556 searched is system dependent.
5558 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5560 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5562 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5564 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5565 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5567 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5569 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5570 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5571 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5572 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5573 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5576 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5578 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5579 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5580 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5581 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5582 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5584 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5586 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5587 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5589 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5591 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5592 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5593 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5596 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5598 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5599 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5600 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5601 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5603 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5604 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5606 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5608 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5609 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5611 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5613 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5614 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5622 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5624 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5625 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5626 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5627 a more informative way.
5629 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5630 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5631 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5632 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5633 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5634 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5636 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5637 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5640 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5641 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5642 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5645 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5646 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5647 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5648 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5649 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5650 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5652 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5653 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5654 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5655 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5658 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5659 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5660 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5661 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5662 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5663 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5665 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5666 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5667 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5668 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5669 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5671 *** regexp functions
5673 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5674 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5675 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5677 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5678 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5679 with SCSH regular expressions.
5681 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5682 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5683 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5684 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5686 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5687 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5688 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5689 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5691 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5692 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5693 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5694 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5695 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5696 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5698 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5699 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5700 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5701 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5702 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5704 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5706 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5707 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5708 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5709 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5711 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5712 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5713 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5715 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5716 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5718 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5721 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5722 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5723 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5725 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5726 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5727 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5729 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5730 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5731 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5732 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5733 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5736 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5738 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5739 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5740 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5741 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5742 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5743 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5745 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5746 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5747 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5749 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5750 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5753 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5754 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5756 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5757 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5758 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5759 may be one of the following arguments:
5761 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5763 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5765 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5766 the regexp match is written.
5768 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5769 following the regexp match is written.
5771 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5772 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5775 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5776 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5777 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5778 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5779 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5780 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5782 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5785 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5786 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5787 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5788 written out to PORT.
5790 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5791 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5792 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5793 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5794 will return after processing a single match.
5796 *** Match Structures
5798 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5799 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5800 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5801 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5802 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5803 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5806 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5807 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5808 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5809 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5810 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5812 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5813 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5814 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5816 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5817 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5818 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5819 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5820 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5822 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5823 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5825 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5826 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5828 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5829 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5831 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5832 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5834 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5835 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5836 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5837 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5839 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5840 Return the original TARGET string.
5842 *** Backslash Escapes
5844 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5845 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5846 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5847 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5848 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5849 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5851 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5852 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5853 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5854 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5855 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5856 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5857 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5858 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5860 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5861 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5862 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5863 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5864 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5865 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5866 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5868 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5869 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5870 return the resulting string.
5872 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5873 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5874 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5875 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5876 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5877 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5878 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5879 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5880 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5881 translated to the single character `*'.
5883 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5884 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5885 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5886 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5887 consecutive backslashes:
5889 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5891 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5892 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5893 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5895 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5896 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5897 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5898 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5899 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5900 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5902 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5904 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5905 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5906 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5907 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5908 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5909 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5910 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5911 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5912 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5913 cumbersome escape syntax.
5915 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5917 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5919 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5921 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5924 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5926 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5928 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5931 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5932 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5933 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5934 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5935 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5937 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5938 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5939 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5940 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5941 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5942 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5943 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5946 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5947 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5948 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5951 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5952 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5954 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5955 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5956 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5957 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5958 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5959 installed, you can say:
5961 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5964 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5966 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5967 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5968 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5969 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5970 new dynamic roots and threads.
5973 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5975 * Changes to the distribution.
5977 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5979 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5980 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5981 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5982 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5983 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5984 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5985 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5986 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5988 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5991 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5992 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5997 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5999 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6000 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6002 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6003 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6004 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6005 the (command-line) function.
6006 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6007 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6008 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6010 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6011 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6012 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6013 command line arguments
6014 -ds do -s script at this point
6015 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6016 -h, --help display this help and exit
6017 -v, --version display version information and exit
6018 \ read arguments from following script lines
6020 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6021 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6023 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6026 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6030 (main (command-line))
6032 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6034 ekko a speckled gecko
6036 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6037 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6038 following list of command-line arguments:
6040 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6042 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6043 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6044 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6045 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6046 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6048 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6050 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6052 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6053 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6056 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6057 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6058 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6059 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6061 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6062 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6063 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6064 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6066 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6070 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6074 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6076 ekko a speckled gecko
6078 Unix expands this into
6080 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6082 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6083 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6085 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6087 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6088 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6090 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6091 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6092 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6093 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6094 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6095 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6096 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6097 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6098 it only terminates the argument list.)
6099 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6100 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6101 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6102 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6103 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6104 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6105 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6106 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6108 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6110 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6111 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6112 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6113 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6114 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6116 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6117 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6118 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6120 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6122 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6123 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6124 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6125 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6128 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6129 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6130 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6132 * Changes to Scheme functions
6134 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6135 and disabled by default.
6137 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6138 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6139 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6140 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6142 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6144 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6146 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6147 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6149 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6150 (read-set! keywords #f)
6152 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6153 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6154 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6157 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6158 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6159 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6162 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6163 support for Scheme functions.
6165 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6166 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6167 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6168 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6171 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6172 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6173 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6176 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6177 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6178 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6181 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6182 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6183 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6184 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6185 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6186 display the result as a prompt.
6187 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6189 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6190 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6191 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6194 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6195 procedure of zero arguments.
6197 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6198 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6199 argument is bound in the current module.
6201 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6202 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6203 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6204 public bindings into the current module.
6206 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6207 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6209 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6210 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6212 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6213 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6215 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6216 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6218 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6219 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6221 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6222 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6223 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6224 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6225 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6227 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6228 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6229 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6230 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6232 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6235 ** Changes to I/O functions
6237 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6238 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6239 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6241 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6242 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6243 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6245 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6246 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6248 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6249 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6250 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6251 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6253 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6255 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6256 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6258 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6259 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6260 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6261 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6262 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6265 'trim omit delimiter from result
6266 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6267 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6268 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6270 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6272 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6273 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6275 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6276 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6277 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6278 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6279 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6281 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6282 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6283 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6285 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6286 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6287 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6288 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6290 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6291 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6293 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6294 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6296 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6298 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6299 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6300 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6301 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6302 a delimiting character.
6303 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6305 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6306 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6307 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6308 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6309 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6310 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6312 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6313 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6315 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6316 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6317 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6319 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6320 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6321 the array to read and write.
6323 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6324 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6327 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6329 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6332 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6333 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6334 Values for COMMAND are:
6336 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6337 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6338 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6339 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6340 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6341 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6342 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6343 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6345 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6347 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6348 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6349 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6350 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6351 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6352 corresponding return set will be the same.
6354 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6357 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6358 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6359 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6360 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6361 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6362 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6363 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6364 special file being created.
6366 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6367 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6369 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6370 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6371 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6372 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6373 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6374 and originating address.
6376 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6377 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6378 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6380 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6383 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6384 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6387 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6388 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6389 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6390 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6391 this function returns #f.
6393 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6394 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6395 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6398 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6399 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6400 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6403 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6404 a valid STATUS value.
6406 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6408 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6409 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6411 Component Accessor Setter
6412 ========================= ============ ============
6413 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6414 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6415 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6416 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6417 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6418 year tm:year set-tm:year
6419 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6420 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6421 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6422 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6423 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6425 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6426 describing the host system:
6429 ============================================== ================
6430 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6431 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6432 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6433 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6434 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6436 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6437 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6438 system's user database:
6441 ====================== =================
6442 user name passwd:name
6443 user password passwd:passwd
6446 real name passwd:gecos
6447 home directory passwd:dir
6448 shell program passwd:shell
6450 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6451 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6452 system's group database:
6455 ======================= ============
6456 group name group:name
6457 group password group:passwd
6459 group members group:mem
6461 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6462 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6466 ========================= ===============
6467 official name of host hostent:name
6468 alias list hostent:aliases
6469 host address type hostent:addrtype
6470 length of address hostent:length
6471 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6473 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6474 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6478 ========================= ===============
6479 official name of net netent:name
6480 alias list netent:aliases
6481 net number type netent:addrtype
6482 net number netent:net
6484 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6485 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6489 ========================= ===============
6490 official protocol name protoent:name
6491 alias list protoent:aliases
6492 protocol number protoent:proto
6494 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6495 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6499 ========================= ===============
6500 official service name servent:name
6501 alias list servent:aliases
6502 port number servent:port
6503 protocol to use servent:proto
6505 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6506 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6509 ======================================== ===============
6510 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6511 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6512 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6513 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6515 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6516 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6517 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6519 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6520 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6522 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6523 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6525 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6526 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6528 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6530 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6532 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6533 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6534 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6536 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6537 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6538 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6539 return the remaining characters as a string.
6541 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6542 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6543 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6545 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6547 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6549 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6552 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6555 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6556 and returns the array
6558 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6559 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6560 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6562 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6564 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6565 symbol's value from C code:
6567 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6568 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6569 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6570 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6572 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6573 without assigning them a value.
6575 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6576 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6577 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6579 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6580 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6581 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6583 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6584 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6586 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6587 doesn't actually care about that.
6589 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6590 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6591 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6593 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6594 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6595 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6596 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6597 which we have just created and initialized.
6599 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6600 should one occur. We call it like this:
6601 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6603 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6604 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6605 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6606 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6607 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6608 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6611 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6612 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6613 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6614 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6615 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6616 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6617 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6620 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6621 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6622 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6623 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6624 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6627 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6628 scm_internal_catch, except:
6630 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6631 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6632 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6633 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6636 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6637 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6638 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6640 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6641 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6642 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6643 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6646 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6647 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6648 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6650 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6651 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6652 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6653 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6654 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6656 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6657 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6658 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6660 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6661 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6662 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6664 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6665 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6667 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6668 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6669 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6672 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6673 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6674 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6675 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6676 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6677 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6678 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6681 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6682 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6684 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6685 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6686 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6687 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6688 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6691 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6692 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6694 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6695 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6698 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6699 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6701 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6704 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6705 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6706 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6707 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6708 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6709 given the following arguments:
6711 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6713 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6715 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6717 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6720 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6721 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6722 command-line arguments.
6724 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6725 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6726 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6727 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6728 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6729 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6732 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6735 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6736 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6738 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6739 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6741 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6742 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6743 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6744 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6746 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6747 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6749 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6750 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6751 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6752 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6754 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6755 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6757 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6758 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6760 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6762 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6763 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6764 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6767 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6768 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6770 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6771 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6776 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6779 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6781 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6782 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6783 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6784 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6786 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6788 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6790 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6791 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6792 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6793 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6794 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6795 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6796 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6797 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6798 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6799 for more information.
6801 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6802 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6804 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6805 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6806 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6807 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6808 following two lines at the top of the file:
6810 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6813 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6814 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6815 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6817 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6819 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6821 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6824 (display (car args))
6825 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6827 (loop (cdr args)))))
6830 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6831 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6832 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6833 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6834 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6835 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6839 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6842 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6845 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6847 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6848 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6849 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6850 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6851 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6854 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6855 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6856 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6857 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6858 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6861 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6864 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6865 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6866 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6869 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6870 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6871 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6873 to see a backtrace, and
6874 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6875 to see them by default.
6879 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6881 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6883 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6884 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6887 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6888 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6889 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6890 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6893 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6894 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6895 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6896 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6897 functions which inspired them.
6899 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6900 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6904 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6906 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6908 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6909 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6912 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6913 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6914 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6916 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6917 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6918 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6919 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6920 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6922 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6924 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6925 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6926 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6929 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6932 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6934 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6935 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6936 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6937 above should serve their purposes.
6939 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6940 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6941 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6942 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6944 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6947 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6948 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6949 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6950 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6952 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6953 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6954 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6955 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6957 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6958 for the `read' function.
6961 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6962 to that of `integer?'.
6964 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6965 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6967 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6968 it simply returns the object's property list.
6970 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6971 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6972 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6973 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6975 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6977 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6980 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6982 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6983 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6985 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6987 void (*main_func) (),
6990 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6991 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6992 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6993 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6994 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6996 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6997 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6998 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6999 know which arguments have been processed.
7001 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7002 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7003 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7004 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7005 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7007 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7008 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7009 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7010 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7011 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7012 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7013 people from making that mistake.
7015 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7016 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7018 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7020 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7024 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7027 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7028 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7029 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7030 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7033 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7034 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7035 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7036 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7039 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7040 have been added to the Guile library.
7042 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7043 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7044 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7047 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7048 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7049 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7051 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7052 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7053 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7054 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7055 argument from the list.
7058 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7061 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7062 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7064 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7065 to a Scheme port object.
7067 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7068 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7073 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7075 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7076 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7077 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7078 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7079 code as a special datatype.
7081 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7082 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7083 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7084 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7085 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7088 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7089 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7090 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7091 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7092 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7094 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7097 Copyright information:
7099 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7101 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7102 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7103 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7104 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7106 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7107 of this document, or of portions of it,
7108 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7109 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7114 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"