1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Changes in 1.9.0 (changes since the 1.8.x series):
10 * New modules (see the manual for details)
12 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
13 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
14 ** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API
15 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
16 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
18 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
20 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
22 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
23 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
25 ** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment.
27 If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set
28 its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000
29 words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit.
31 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
32 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
34 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
35 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
36 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
39 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
41 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
42 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
43 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
45 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
47 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
50 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
52 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
54 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
55 not apply to the compiler.
57 ** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled
60 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
61 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
62 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
64 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
65 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
66 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
69 Autocompiled files will be stored in the user's ~/.guile-ccache
70 directory, which will be created if needed. This is analogous to
71 ccache's behavior for C files.
73 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
74 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
76 Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will
77 sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't.
79 For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
80 not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
81 something here about module-transformer called for compile.
83 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
85 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
86 in the next prerelease.
88 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
90 ** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled
93 This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0.
95 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
96 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
97 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments',
99 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
100 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
101 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
102 procedures' docstrings for more information.
104 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
105 combining arity and formals. For example:
107 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
108 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
110 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
113 ** Deprecated: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
115 These procedures will not work with syncase expansion, and indeed are
116 not used in the normal course of Guile. They are still used by the old
117 Emacs Lisp support, however.
119 ** New language: ECMAScript
121 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
122 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
123 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
124 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
126 ** Defmacros may now have docstrings.
128 Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from
129 `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you
130 have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros.
131 Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures.
133 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
136 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
138 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
139 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
142 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
143 (define (helper x) ...)
145 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
147 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
150 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
151 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
153 ** New function, `procedure-module'
155 While useful on its own, `procedure-module' is used by psyntax on syntax
156 transformers to determine the module in which to scope introduced
159 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
161 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still
162 missing documentation, however.
164 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
167 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
168 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
170 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
172 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
174 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
176 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
177 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
178 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
179 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
180 in response to user feedback.
182 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
184 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
185 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
188 (define (helper x) ...)
189 (define-macro (foo bar)
192 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
195 (define (helper x) ...)
196 (define-macro (foo bar)
197 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
199 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
203 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
205 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
207 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
214 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
215 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
218 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
220 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
224 (define-macro (ref x) x)
227 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
228 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
229 macros before code that uses them.
231 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
234 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
236 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
237 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
238 (double-literal 2) => 4
240 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
241 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
242 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
244 (eval-when (load compile eval)
245 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
246 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
247 (double-literal 2) => 4
249 See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more
252 ** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer
254 Need to document this one some more.
256 ** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1'
258 `macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to
259 implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove
262 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
264 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
265 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
266 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
268 ** Incompatible change to #'
270 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
271 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
272 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
273 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
275 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
277 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
280 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
281 works (with compiled procedures)
283 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
284 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
285 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
286 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
288 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
289 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
290 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
291 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
292 number of stack frames.
294 ** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
295 active in the current continuation
297 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
298 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
299 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
300 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
302 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
303 through to the expanded code
305 This should result in better backtraces.
307 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
309 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
311 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
313 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
314 default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported
317 ** All modules have names now
319 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
320 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
321 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
322 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
324 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
326 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
327 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
328 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
330 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
331 values to the expected number
333 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
334 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
335 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
337 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
338 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
339 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
340 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
342 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
343 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
344 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
346 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
349 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
351 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
353 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
354 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
355 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
356 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
357 the interpreter would proceed.
359 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
360 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
361 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
362 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
364 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
366 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
367 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
368 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
369 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
370 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
371 you to contact the Guile developers.
373 ** psyntax is now the default expander
375 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
376 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
379 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
380 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
381 code in question was memoized.
383 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
384 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
385 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
386 `x432' instead of `x'.
388 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
389 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
390 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
391 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
393 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
395 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
396 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
397 `sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
400 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
401 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
402 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
403 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
405 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
406 by nonhygienic macros.
408 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
409 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
412 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
413 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
414 (define-macro (ref x)
421 (define-syntax bind-x
423 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
424 (define-macro (ref x)
428 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
429 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
430 run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
431 its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
434 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
436 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
437 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
439 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
440 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
443 This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome
444 to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no
445 subscription required).
447 ** New macro type: syncase-macro
449 XXX Need to decide whether to document this for 2.0, probably should:
450 make-syncase-macro, make-extended-syncase-macro, macro-type,
451 syncase-macro-type, syncase-macro-binding
453 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
455 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
458 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
460 This slightly improves program startup times.
462 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
464 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
466 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
468 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
469 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
470 backtrace. This has been fixed.
472 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
474 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
476 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
478 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
480 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
482 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
484 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
485 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
486 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
488 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
490 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
491 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
493 * Changes to the C interface
495 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
497 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
499 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
502 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
503 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
505 ** scm_primitive_load_path has additional argument, exception_on_error
507 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
509 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
511 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
512 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
514 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
516 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
517 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
519 * Changes to the distribution
521 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
523 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
524 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
527 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
529 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
530 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
531 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
534 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
536 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
537 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
539 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring.
541 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/. We hope to merge in
542 Unicode support in the next prerelease.
546 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
548 * New modules (see the manual for details)
550 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
554 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
555 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
556 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
557 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
558 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
559 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
560 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
561 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
562 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
564 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
566 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
567 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
568 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
571 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
574 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
576 * New features (see the manual for details)
578 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
580 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
582 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
583 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
584 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
586 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
588 * Changes to the distribution
590 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
592 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
593 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
595 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
597 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
598 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
603 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
604 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
605 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
606 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
607 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
608 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
609 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
610 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
611 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
612 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
613 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
614 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
615 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
616 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
618 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
619 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
620 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
621 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
622 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
625 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
627 * Infrastructure changes
629 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
631 The new repository can be accessed using
632 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
633 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
635 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
637 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
639 * New modules (see the manual for details)
643 * New features (see the manual for details)
645 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
646 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
647 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
649 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
650 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
651 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
652 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
654 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
656 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
657 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
658 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
662 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
663 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
665 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
666 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
668 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
669 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
671 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
672 lead to a stack overflow.
674 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
675 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
676 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
677 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
678 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
679 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
680 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
681 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
682 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
683 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
684 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
685 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
686 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
687 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
688 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
689 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
691 * Changes to the distribution
695 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
696 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
699 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
703 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
704 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
705 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
706 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
707 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
708 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
709 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
710 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
711 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
712 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
713 system and library calls.
714 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
715 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
716 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
717 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
718 uniform vectors on AIX.
719 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
720 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
721 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
722 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
723 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
725 * New modules (see the manual for details)
729 * Documentation fixes and improvements
731 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
733 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
734 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
736 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
738 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
740 * Changes to the distribution
742 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
744 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
745 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
746 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
748 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
750 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
753 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
755 * New modules (see the manual for details)
762 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
763 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
764 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
765 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
766 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
767 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
768 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
770 * Implementation improvements
772 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
773 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
776 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
778 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
780 ** set-program-arguments
783 * Incompatible changes
785 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
787 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
788 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
789 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
790 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
795 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
796 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
797 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
798 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
799 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
800 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
802 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
803 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
804 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
805 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
806 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
807 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
808 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
809 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
810 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
811 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
812 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
813 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
814 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
815 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
816 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
817 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
820 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
822 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
824 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
826 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
827 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
828 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
829 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
830 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
831 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
839 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
841 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
843 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
845 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
847 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
849 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
851 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
852 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
853 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
855 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
857 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
859 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
860 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
862 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
864 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
865 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
867 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
869 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
871 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
873 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
875 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
877 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
879 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
881 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
883 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
885 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
886 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
887 file was on a different device.
890 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
892 * Changes to the distribution
894 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
896 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
898 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
900 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
902 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
904 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
907 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
909 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
910 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
911 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
912 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
913 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
914 items like the versioned share directory name
915 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
917 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
918 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
919 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
920 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
921 with each micro release during a stable series.
923 ** Thread implementation has changed.
925 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
926 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
927 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
928 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
929 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
932 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
933 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
934 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
935 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
938 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
939 in which case "null" threads are used.
941 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
942 "Blocking", and others.
944 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
946 This is a milder form of deprecation.
948 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
949 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
950 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
951 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
952 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
954 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
955 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
957 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
959 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
960 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
962 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
965 This SRFI is always available.
967 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
969 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
970 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
971 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
972 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
975 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
977 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
978 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
979 parameters without currying.
981 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
983 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
984 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
986 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
987 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
990 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
991 with a renaming import, for example.
993 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
995 The official version is good enough now.
997 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
999 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
1000 provided. Use 'make html'.
1002 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
1004 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
1005 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
1006 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
1007 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
1009 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
1011 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
1014 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1016 ** New command line option `-L'.
1018 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
1020 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
1022 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
1023 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
1025 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
1027 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
1028 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
1030 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
1032 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
1033 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
1036 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
1039 (define-module (demo)
1043 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
1046 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1048 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
1050 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
1051 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
1052 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
1054 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
1056 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
1057 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
1059 ** New function hashx-remove!
1061 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
1063 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
1064 barriers and dynamic states.
1066 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
1067 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
1068 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
1071 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
1072 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
1073 Barriers" in the manual.
1075 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
1076 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
1078 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
1080 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
1081 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
1082 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
1083 variable %load-path.
1085 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
1087 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
1088 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
1090 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
1091 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
1092 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
1094 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
1095 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
1097 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
1098 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
1099 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
1101 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
1102 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
1103 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
1106 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
1107 substrings and read-only strings.
1109 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
1110 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
1113 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
1115 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
1124 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
1125 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
1126 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
1128 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
1129 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
1130 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
1131 on an ANSI terminal:
1133 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
1134 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
1137 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
1139 See the manual for details.
1141 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
1143 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
1146 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
1148 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
1149 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
1150 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
1151 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
1153 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
1154 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
1155 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
1158 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
1160 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
1161 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
1172 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
1176 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
1181 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
1185 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
1189 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
1192 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
1193 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
1194 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
1195 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
1197 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
1198 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
1201 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
1204 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
1208 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
1210 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
1211 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
1212 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
1215 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
1218 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
1220 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
1223 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
1224 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
1227 (define-module (foo)
1232 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
1233 has been detected is to
1235 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
1236 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
1237 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
1240 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
1243 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
1245 to your .guile init file.
1247 ** New define-module option: :replace
1249 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
1252 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
1253 for the core binding `format'.
1255 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
1257 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
1258 a prefix to all imported bindings.
1260 (define-module (foo)
1261 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
1263 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
1266 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
1268 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
1269 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
1270 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
1272 ** New function: effective-version
1274 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1275 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1276 to the distribution" above.
1278 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
1280 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
1281 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
1283 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
1285 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
1286 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
1288 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
1290 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
1291 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
1294 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
1296 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
1298 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
1300 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
1301 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
1302 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
1305 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
1306 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
1307 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
1308 'system-async-mark'.
1310 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
1311 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
1313 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
1314 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
1315 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
1318 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
1320 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
1321 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
1324 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
1325 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1327 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
1328 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
1329 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
1330 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
1331 level for the current thread.
1333 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
1335 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
1337 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1338 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
1341 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
1343 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
1345 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
1348 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
1350 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
1353 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
1354 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
1355 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
1357 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
1358 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
1359 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
1360 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
1371 ERROR: Numerical overflow
1373 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
1376 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
1378 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
1379 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
1380 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
1391 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
1393 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
1394 them is also done exactly, of course:
1399 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
1400 for exact arguments.
1402 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
1403 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
1405 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
1407 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
1408 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
1409 equal to a floating point number. For example:
1411 (inexact->exact 1.234)
1412 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
1414 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
1416 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
1419 ** New function 'rationalize'.
1421 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
1422 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
1424 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
1427 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
1428 result when both its arguments are exact.
1430 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
1432 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
1433 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
1434 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
1436 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
1438 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
1439 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
1440 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
1442 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
1445 ** pretty-print has more options.
1447 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
1448 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
1449 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
1451 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
1453 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
1454 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
1455 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
1457 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
1459 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
1460 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
1462 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
1464 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
1465 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
1468 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
1470 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
1471 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
1472 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
1473 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
1474 without the soft port blocking.
1476 ** Deprecated: undefine
1478 There is no replacement for undefine.
1480 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
1481 have been discouraged.
1483 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
1484 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
1485 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
1488 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
1490 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
1492 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
1493 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
1494 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
1495 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
1498 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
1499 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
1500 be removed in the next major Guile release.
1502 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
1504 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
1505 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
1506 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
1507 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
1508 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
1509 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
1511 * Changes to the C interface
1513 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
1514 take a 'delete' function argument.
1516 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
1517 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
1519 This is an incompatible change.
1521 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
1523 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
1524 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
1525 --disable-deprecated.
1527 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
1529 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
1530 Scheme values has been added.
1532 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
1533 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
1536 - int scm_is_* (...)
1538 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
1539 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
1541 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1543 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1544 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1547 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1549 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1550 scm_from_int for ints.
1552 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1553 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1554 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1556 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1558 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1559 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1560 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1563 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1565 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1567 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1569 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1570 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1571 following alternatives.
1573 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1574 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1575 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1576 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1578 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1579 do the validating for you.
1581 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1582 have been discouraged.
1584 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1585 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1588 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1590 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1591 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1594 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1596 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1599 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1602 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1604 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1605 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1607 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1608 scm_truncate_number should have.
1610 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1611 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1613 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1616 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1617 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1618 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1620 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1621 easier to use from C.
1623 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1624 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1626 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1627 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1628 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1631 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1632 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1633 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1634 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1637 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1638 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1639 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1640 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1641 and is thus quite efficient.
1643 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1645 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1646 about the character encoding.
1648 Replace according to the following table:
1650 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1651 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1652 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1653 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1654 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1655 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1656 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1657 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1658 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1660 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1661 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1663 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1665 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1666 now also available to C code.
1668 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1670 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1671 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1672 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1674 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1677 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1679 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1680 unceremoniously removed.
1682 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1683 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1684 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1686 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1687 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1688 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1689 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1690 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1691 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1694 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1696 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1697 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1698 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1699 manual for more details.
1701 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1702 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1704 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1705 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1706 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1708 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1710 Migrate according to the following table:
1712 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1713 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1714 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1715 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1716 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1717 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1718 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1720 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1721 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1722 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1723 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1724 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1725 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1726 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1728 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1730 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1731 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1733 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1734 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1735 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1736 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1738 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1740 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1741 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1742 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1744 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1745 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1747 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1748 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1749 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1750 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1752 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1754 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1755 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1756 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1757 prevent a potential memory leak:
1764 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1766 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1767 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1769 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1770 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1777 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1778 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1782 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1784 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1786 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1787 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1788 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1790 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1791 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1793 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1795 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1797 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1798 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1799 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1801 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1802 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1804 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1805 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1806 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1807 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1810 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1812 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1813 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1814 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1816 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1818 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1819 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1821 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1823 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1824 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1826 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1828 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1829 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1830 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1832 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1834 You should not have used them.
1836 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1838 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1839 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1841 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1843 This macro is not intended for public use.
1845 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1847 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1849 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1851 Use scm_is_real instead.
1853 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1855 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1857 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1859 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1860 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1862 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1863 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1865 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1866 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1868 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1870 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1873 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1875 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1876 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1877 to the distribution" above.
1879 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1881 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1882 arguments are now passed directly:
1884 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1886 This is an incompatible change.
1888 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1890 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1891 function in the init section.
1893 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1895 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1897 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1898 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1899 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1900 stays roughly constant.
1902 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1903 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1904 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1905 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1906 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1909 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1910 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1911 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1912 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1914 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1915 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1916 objects for every type.
1919 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1921 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1923 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1925 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1926 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1927 initializes a new cell (see below).
1929 ** New functions for memory management
1931 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1932 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1933 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1934 cause aborts in long running programs.
1936 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1937 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1939 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1940 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1941 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1942 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1943 details and for upgrading instructions.
1945 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1946 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1947 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1949 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1951 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1952 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1953 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1954 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1955 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1957 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1958 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1959 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1961 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1962 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1964 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1966 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1967 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1968 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1969 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1970 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1972 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1974 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1977 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1979 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1981 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1983 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1984 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1986 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1988 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1989 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1991 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1992 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1994 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1996 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1998 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1999 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
2000 blocking it is not well defined.
2002 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
2004 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
2005 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
2006 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
2007 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
2008 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
2009 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
2010 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
2011 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
2012 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
2013 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
2014 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2015 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
2016 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
2017 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
2018 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
2019 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
2020 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
2021 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2022 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
2023 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
2024 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
2025 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
2026 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
2027 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
2028 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
2029 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
2030 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
2031 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
2032 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
2033 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
2034 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
2036 * Changes to bundled modules
2040 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
2041 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
2042 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
2043 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
2044 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
2047 Changes since Guile 1.4:
2049 * Changes to the distribution
2051 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
2053 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
2055 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
2056 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
2057 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
2058 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
2059 indicate major changes in Guile.
2061 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
2062 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
2063 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
2064 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
2066 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
2067 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
2068 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
2069 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
2070 micro version number.
2072 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
2074 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
2076 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
2077 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
2079 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
2081 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
2082 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
2083 See INSTALL and README for more information.
2085 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
2087 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
2088 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
2089 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
2092 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
2094 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
2097 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
2099 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
2100 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
2102 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
2104 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
2105 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
2108 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
2110 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
2113 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
2116 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
2118 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
2120 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
2121 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
2122 open-output-string, get-output-string.
2124 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
2126 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
2128 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
2131 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
2133 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
2135 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
2137 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
2138 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
2139 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
2141 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
2143 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
2145 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
2146 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
2155 See README there for more info.
2157 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
2158 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
2161 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
2163 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
2165 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
2167 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
2168 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
2169 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
2171 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
2173 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
2174 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
2175 to be named `and-let*', of course.
2177 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
2178 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
2180 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
2183 (oop goops describe)
2185 (oop goops active-slot)
2186 (oop goops composite-slot)
2188 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
2189 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
2190 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
2192 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
2194 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
2195 in the default environment:
2197 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
2198 %read-line write-line
2200 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
2201 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
2203 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
2205 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
2208 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
2209 can be used for similar functionality.
2211 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
2213 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
2214 it defines two procedures:
2216 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2218 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
2219 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2220 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
2223 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2225 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
2226 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2227 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
2228 write large strings.
2230 ** New module (ice-9 match)
2232 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
2233 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
2235 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
2237 for complete documentation.
2239 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
2241 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
2242 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
2243 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
2244 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
2246 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
2247 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
2251 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
2252 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
2253 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
2256 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
2259 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
2260 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
2262 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
2263 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
2266 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
2269 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
2271 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
2273 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2275 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
2277 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
2278 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
2279 Scheme programs easier.
2281 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
2282 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
2283 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
2284 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
2285 `cond-expand' when using this option.
2288 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
2289 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
2291 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
2294 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
2296 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
2297 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
2298 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
2301 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2303 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
2305 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
2306 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
2307 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
2308 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
2309 was also ASCII, for example.
2311 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
2313 tag - no replacement.
2314 fseek - replaced by seek.
2315 list* - replaced by cons*.
2317 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
2321 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
2322 (define m (make-safe-module))
2323 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
2324 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
2325 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
2327 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
2329 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
2330 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
2331 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
2333 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
2335 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
2336 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
2337 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
2338 from the issues related to the module system.
2340 *** New function: load-extension
2342 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
2344 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
2346 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
2347 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
2348 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
2350 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
2352 This function registers a initialization function for use by
2353 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
2354 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
2355 support dynamic linking).
2357 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
2359 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
2360 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
2361 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
2362 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
2365 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
2366 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
2367 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
2368 library and initialize it explicitly.
2370 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
2371 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
2373 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
2375 (define-module (foo bar))
2377 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
2379 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
2381 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
2382 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
2384 (scheme-report-environment 5)
2385 (null-environment 5)
2386 (interaction-environment)
2392 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
2394 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
2395 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
2396 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
2397 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
2399 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
2400 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
2401 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
2402 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
2403 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
2404 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
2405 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
2406 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
2407 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
2408 one eval to the next.
2410 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
2411 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
2412 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
2413 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
2414 subforms are at the top-level as well.
2416 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
2417 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
2418 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
2419 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
2420 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
2421 used in a lexical environment.
2423 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
2424 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
2425 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
2426 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
2427 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
2428 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
2430 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
2432 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
2433 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
2434 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
2435 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
2436 new facilities: selection and renaming.
2438 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
2439 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
2440 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
2442 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
2443 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
2445 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
2446 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
2447 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2449 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2450 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
2452 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
2453 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
2454 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
2455 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
2458 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2459 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
2460 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
2461 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2463 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2464 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2465 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
2467 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2468 ;; and all four by upcasing.
2469 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
2470 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
2471 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
2473 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2475 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2476 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2477 :renamer upcase-symbol))
2479 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
2480 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
2481 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
2483 See manual for more info.
2485 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
2487 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
2488 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
2489 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
2491 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
2493 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
2494 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
2495 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
2497 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
2498 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
2499 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
2500 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
2502 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
2504 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
2505 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
2507 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
2508 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
2509 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
2510 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
2511 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
2514 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
2515 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
2516 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
2517 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
2518 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
2519 successful and #f if it wasn't.
2521 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
2522 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
2523 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
2524 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
2525 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
2527 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
2528 objects are usually permanent.
2530 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
2531 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
2533 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
2535 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
2536 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
2539 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2543 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2548 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2550 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2551 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2552 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2553 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2555 ** New function `make-object-property'
2557 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2558 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2562 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2563 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2567 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2568 source properties eventually.
2570 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2572 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2573 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2574 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2576 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2577 will be removed in the next release.
2579 ** New define-module option: pure
2581 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2586 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2589 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2591 Export names NAME1 ...
2593 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2594 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2598 (define-module (foo)
2600 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2603 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2608 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2610 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2612 ** New function: port? X
2614 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2615 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2617 ** New function: file-port?
2619 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2621 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2623 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2624 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2625 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2626 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2627 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2629 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2631 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2632 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2633 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2634 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2635 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2638 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2640 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2641 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2642 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2643 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2646 ** New function: crypt password salt
2648 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2651 ** New function: chroot path
2653 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2655 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2657 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2660 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2662 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2664 ** New function: getpass prompt
2666 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2669 ** New function: flock file operation
2671 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2673 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2675 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2678 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2680 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2681 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2682 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2683 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2684 of the temporary file.
2686 ** New function: open-input-string string
2688 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2689 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2690 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2692 ** New function: open-output-string
2694 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2695 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2697 ** New function: get-output-string
2699 Return the contents of an output string port.
2701 ** New function: identity
2703 Return the argument.
2705 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2706 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2708 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2710 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2711 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2712 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2715 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2716 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2718 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2720 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2721 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2722 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2725 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2726 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2727 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2731 Use `identity' instead.
2737 ** Deprecated: return-it
2741 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2743 Use `string-length' instead.
2745 ** Deprecated: flags
2747 Use `logior' instead.
2749 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2751 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2752 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2753 port-for-each is more flexible.
2755 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2756 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2757 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2759 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2761 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2763 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2765 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2767 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2769 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2770 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2772 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2773 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2775 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2776 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2778 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2780 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2781 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2783 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2784 Use module system operations for all variables.
2786 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2788 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2791 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2793 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2794 The following bugs have been fixed:
2796 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2797 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2800 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2801 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2802 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2804 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2805 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2807 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2808 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2811 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2812 The expansion used to be like so:
2814 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2816 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2818 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2820 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2821 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2823 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2825 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2826 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2827 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2831 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2832 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2834 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2839 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2840 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2842 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2843 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2844 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2846 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2849 * Changes to the C interface
2851 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2853 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2854 with "_t". What a concept.
2856 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2858 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2860 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2864 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2865 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2867 *** C Functions removed
2869 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2870 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2871 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2872 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2873 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2874 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2875 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2877 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2879 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2881 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2883 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2885 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2886 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2888 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2890 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2893 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2895 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2897 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2899 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2900 Evaluation" in the manual.
2902 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2904 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2905 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2907 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2909 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2910 Constructors" in the manual.
2912 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2914 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2915 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2917 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2919 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2921 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2922 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2923 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2925 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2927 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2929 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2930 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2931 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2934 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2936 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2938 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2939 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2941 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2943 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2944 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2945 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2946 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2948 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2949 scm_primitive_property_ref
2950 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2951 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2953 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2954 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2956 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2958 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2959 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2960 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2961 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2963 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2965 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2966 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2967 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2968 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2969 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2970 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2971 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2973 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2974 scm_remember_upto_here
2976 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2978 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2980 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2981 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2983 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2985 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2987 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2989 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2991 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2993 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2994 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2995 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2996 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2997 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2998 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
3000 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
3002 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3004 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
3005 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3006 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
3008 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
3010 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
3011 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3012 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
3014 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
3016 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
3017 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
3020 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
3023 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
3024 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3027 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3029 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
3031 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
3033 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3035 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
3037 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
3039 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
3040 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
3041 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
3042 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3043 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
3044 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
3045 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
3046 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3047 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
3048 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
3049 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
3050 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
3051 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
3052 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
3053 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
3055 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
3056 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
3057 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
3058 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
3059 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
3060 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
3061 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
3062 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
3063 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3064 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
3065 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
3066 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
3067 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
3068 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
3069 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
3070 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3071 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3072 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
3073 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
3074 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
3075 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
3076 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
3077 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
3078 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
3079 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
3080 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
3081 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
3082 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
3083 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
3085 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
3087 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
3089 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
3090 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
3092 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
3094 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
3096 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
3098 Use scm_string_hash instead.
3100 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
3102 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
3104 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
3106 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
3108 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
3111 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
3112 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
3114 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
3116 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
3118 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
3120 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
3122 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
3124 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
3126 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
3128 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
3131 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
3133 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
3135 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
3137 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
3138 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
3140 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
3141 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
3143 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
3145 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
3146 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
3147 scm_module_define, scm_define.
3149 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
3151 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
3153 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
3154 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
3156 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
3157 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
3158 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
3159 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
3161 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
3162 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
3163 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
3165 Use the new ones from above instead.
3167 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
3169 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
3170 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
3171 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
3173 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
3174 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
3176 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
3177 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
3180 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
3181 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
3183 Use the new functions instead.
3185 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
3188 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
3190 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
3192 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
3195 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
3197 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
3200 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
3202 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
3205 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
3206 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
3207 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
3209 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
3211 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
3212 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
3214 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
3215 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
3216 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
3217 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
3220 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
3222 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
3223 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
3224 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
3225 inexact for an exact.
3227 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
3228 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
3229 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
3232 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
3233 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
3234 accept an inexact argument.
3236 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
3237 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
3239 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
3242 ** New number validation macros:
3243 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
3247 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
3249 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
3250 scm_unprotect_object.
3252 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
3254 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
3256 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
3259 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
3261 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
3265 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
3267 * Changes to the distribution
3269 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
3271 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
3272 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
3273 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
3274 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
3275 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
3276 obtain these programs.
3277 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
3278 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
3280 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
3281 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
3282 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
3283 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
3284 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
3286 However, this approach means that minor differences between
3287 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
3288 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
3289 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
3293 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
3296 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
3297 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
3298 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
3299 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
3301 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
3303 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
3305 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
3306 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
3308 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
3309 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
3311 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
3312 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
3314 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
3315 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
3316 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
3317 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
3319 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
3321 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
3325 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
3326 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
3328 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
3330 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
3331 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
3333 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
3334 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
3335 number of objects of that kind.
3337 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
3339 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
3340 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
3341 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
3342 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
3343 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
3345 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
3347 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
3349 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
3351 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
3354 ** New module (ice-9 time)
3356 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
3358 ** New module (ice-9 history)
3360 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
3362 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3364 ** New command line option --debug
3366 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
3368 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
3370 ** New help facility
3372 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
3373 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
3374 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
3375 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
3376 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
3377 (help) gives this text
3379 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
3380 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
3382 Examples: (help help)
3384 (help "output-string")
3386 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
3388 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
3390 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
3391 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
3394 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
3395 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
3396 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
3399 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
3400 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
3401 use absolute filenames when possible.
3403 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
3404 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
3405 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
3408 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
3410 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
3411 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
3412 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
3413 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
3415 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
3417 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
3419 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
3420 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
3421 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
3423 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
3424 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
3425 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
3427 (read-enable 'positions)
3428 (debug-enable 'debug)
3430 ** Backtraces in scripts
3432 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
3436 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
3438 at the top of the script.
3440 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
3441 The second enables backtraces.)
3443 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
3445 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
3446 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
3447 substantially faster than before.
3449 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
3450 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
3452 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
3453 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
3455 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
3457 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
3458 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
3459 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
3461 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
3462 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
3463 when this hook is run in the future.
3465 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
3466 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
3468 ** Improvements to garbage collector
3470 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
3471 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
3474 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
3475 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
3476 more and more memory for certain programs.)
3478 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
3479 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
3481 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
3482 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
3484 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
3485 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
3486 in order not to need further allocation.)
3488 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
3491 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
3492 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
3493 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
3494 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
3496 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
3498 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
3501 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
3503 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
3506 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
3507 GC in percent of total heap size
3510 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
3511 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
3513 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
3515 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
3516 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
3518 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
3520 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
3521 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
3523 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
3525 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
3526 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
3530 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
3531 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
3533 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
3535 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3537 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
3539 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
3541 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3543 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3544 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3546 (simple-format port message . args)
3547 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3548 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3549 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3550 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3551 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3552 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3553 Does not add a trailing newline."
3555 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3557 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3558 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3560 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3561 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3563 ** Deprecated: list*
3565 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3567 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3569 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3570 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3572 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3573 is returned as result.
3575 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3577 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3579 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3581 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3582 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3585 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3587 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3589 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3590 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3592 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3594 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3596 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3598 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3600 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3602 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3604 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3606 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3607 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3608 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3610 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3613 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3615 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3616 the readability of argument checking.
3618 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3620 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3622 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3624 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3625 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3626 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3627 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3628 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3629 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3630 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3632 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3634 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3636 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3637 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3639 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3641 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3642 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3645 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3647 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3648 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3649 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3651 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3652 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3653 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3655 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3656 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3657 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3658 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3659 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3660 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3661 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3663 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3664 scm_end_input (object);
3665 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3666 ptob->flush (object);
3668 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3669 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3672 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3674 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3676 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3677 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3678 removed in a future version.
3680 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3682 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3683 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3684 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3685 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3687 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3688 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3690 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3693 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3695 in your configure.in.
3697 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3702 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3708 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3710 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3714 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3715 (define make-message string-append)
3717 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3719 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3723 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3728 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3732 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3734 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3735 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3737 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3739 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3740 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3741 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3742 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3743 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3744 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3746 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3747 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3748 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3750 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3751 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3752 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3755 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3756 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3757 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3758 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3759 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3761 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3762 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3763 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3764 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3765 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3766 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3767 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3769 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3771 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3772 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3773 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3775 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3776 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3777 KEY in the calling thread.
3779 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3780 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3781 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3782 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3783 associated with the key.
3785 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3787 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3788 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3790 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3792 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3793 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3794 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3796 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3798 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3799 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3801 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3803 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3805 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3806 returned is undefined.
3808 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3809 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3810 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3812 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3813 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3814 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3816 ** New C level GC hooks
3818 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3820 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3823 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3824 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3825 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3827 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3828 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3829 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3831 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3832 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3835 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3837 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3838 allocation parameters
3840 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3841 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3842 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3846 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3847 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3848 scm_default_max_segment_size
3850 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3852 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3853 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3855 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3857 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3858 object and count on the object being protected until
3859 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3861 The functions also have better time complexity.
3863 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3864 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3865 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3866 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3867 are no longer needed.
3869 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3871 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3872 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3873 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3874 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3876 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3878 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3880 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3882 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3883 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3884 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3885 until this issue has been settled.
3887 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3889 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3891 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3894 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3896 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3898 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3899 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3900 descriptors were checked.
3902 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3903 atomically written to a pipe.
3905 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3906 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3907 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3908 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3909 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3910 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3911 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3914 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3915 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3916 is changed without calling tzset.
3918 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3920 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3921 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3922 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3924 (define write-network-long
3925 (lambda (value port)
3926 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3927 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3928 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3930 (define read-network-long
3932 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3933 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3934 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3936 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3937 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3939 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3940 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3941 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3942 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3944 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3945 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3946 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3947 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3951 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3953 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3957 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3958 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3959 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3965 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3966 for a description of available commands.
3968 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3969 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3970 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3972 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3974 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3975 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3977 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3979 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3981 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3982 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3983 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3984 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3985 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3986 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3989 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3991 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3992 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3993 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3994 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3996 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3997 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3999 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
4001 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4003 ** Readline support has changed again.
4005 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
4006 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
4007 to activate readline is now
4009 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
4012 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
4014 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
4015 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
4016 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
4019 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
4020 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
4021 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
4024 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
4025 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
4026 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
4027 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
4028 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
4029 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
4031 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
4032 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
4034 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
4036 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
4037 object it receives is the same string passed to
4038 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
4039 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
4040 string, not the suffix.
4042 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
4043 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
4044 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
4046 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
4048 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
4049 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
4050 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
4051 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
4054 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4056 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
4058 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
4059 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
4060 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
4061 appear from left to right.
4063 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
4066 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
4068 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
4069 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
4071 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4075 *** New function: hook? OBJ
4077 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
4079 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
4081 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
4082 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
4083 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
4085 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
4087 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
4089 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
4091 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
4094 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
4096 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
4097 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
4098 mentioning it here anyway.
4100 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
4102 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
4103 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
4104 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
4105 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
4108 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
4110 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
4112 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
4114 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
4115 otherwise return #f.
4117 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
4119 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
4120 returned by `opendir'.
4122 ** New function: using-readline?
4124 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
4126 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4128 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
4129 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4131 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4133 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4135 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
4136 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
4137 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4139 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
4141 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
4142 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
4144 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
4146 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
4147 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
4148 documentation slots are not yet used.
4150 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
4152 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
4153 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
4154 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
4159 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
4160 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
4161 (string-append x y))
4163 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
4164 can also be used for concatenating strings.
4166 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
4167 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
4168 be made in a clean way.]
4170 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
4172 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4174 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4176 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
4177 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
4179 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4181 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
4183 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4185 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4187 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
4188 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
4189 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
4190 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
4193 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4195 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
4197 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4199 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4201 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
4202 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
4204 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4206 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
4208 Evaluates the body of a special form.
4210 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
4212 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
4213 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
4214 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
4215 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
4216 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
4217 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
4219 This should not make any difference for most users.
4221 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
4223 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
4224 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
4226 *** New functions for applying generic functions
4228 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
4229 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
4230 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
4231 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
4232 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
4234 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
4236 It is now replaced by:
4238 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
4240 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4241 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4243 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4245 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
4246 This might change when we get the new module system.
4248 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
4252 Changes since Guile 1.3:
4254 * Changes to mailing lists
4256 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
4258 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
4261 * Changes to the distribution
4263 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
4265 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
4266 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
4267 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
4268 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
4269 you explicitly specify it.
4271 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
4272 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
4273 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
4274 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
4275 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
4278 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
4279 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
4280 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
4281 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
4283 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
4284 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
4285 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
4288 You can activate the readline support by issuing
4290 (use-modules (readline-activator))
4293 from your ".guile" file, for example.
4295 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4297 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
4298 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
4299 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
4300 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
4302 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
4303 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
4306 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4308 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
4309 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
4310 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
4311 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
4312 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
4313 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
4314 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
4315 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
4327 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
4328 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
4329 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
4330 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
4331 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
4336 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
4337 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
4345 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
4350 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
4351 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
4354 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
4355 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
4356 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
4357 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
4359 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
4361 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
4363 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
4364 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
4366 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
4368 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
4370 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
4371 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
4373 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
4376 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
4378 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
4380 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
4382 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
4384 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
4386 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
4388 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
4389 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
4390 when the hook was created.
4392 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
4393 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
4394 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
4395 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
4396 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
4397 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
4398 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
4399 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
4400 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
4402 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
4403 the dlopen family of functions.
4405 ** New function `provided?'
4407 - Function: provided? FEATURE
4408 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
4409 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
4410 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
4412 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
4414 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
4415 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
4416 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
4417 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4420 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4421 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
4422 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
4423 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
4425 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
4426 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
4427 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
4430 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
4431 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
4432 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
4433 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
4434 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
4435 but with the flag set.
4437 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
4439 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
4440 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
4442 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
4443 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
4444 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
4445 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
4446 available Scheme format implementations.
4448 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
4449 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
4450 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
4451 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
4452 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
4453 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
4454 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
4455 output is to the current error port if available by the
4456 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
4459 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
4460 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
4461 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
4462 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
4463 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
4464 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
4465 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
4466 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
4468 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
4469 be executed at a time.
4472 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
4474 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
4475 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
4476 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
4478 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
4479 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
4480 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
4481 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
4482 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
4483 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
4484 general form of a directive is:
4486 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
4488 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
4490 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4492 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
4493 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
4494 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
4497 Any (print as `display' does).
4501 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
4505 S-expression (print as `write' does).
4509 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
4515 print number sign always.
4518 print comma separated.
4520 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
4526 print number sign always.
4529 print comma separated.
4531 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
4537 print number sign always.
4540 print comma separated.
4542 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4548 print number sign always.
4551 print comma separated.
4553 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4558 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4562 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4565 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4568 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4571 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4576 prints `y' and `ies'.
4579 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4582 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4587 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4591 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4594 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4595 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4597 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4600 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4601 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4603 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4606 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4608 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4610 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4613 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4615 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4617 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4620 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4623 The sign appears before the padding.
4631 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4633 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4638 print N page separators.
4648 newline is ignored, white space left.
4651 newline is left, white space ignored.
4656 relative tabulation.
4662 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4664 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4667 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4669 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4672 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4675 converts by `string-upcase'.
4678 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4680 jumps N arguments forward.
4683 jumps 1 argument backward.
4686 jumps N arguments backward.
4689 jumps to the 0th argument.
4692 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4694 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4695 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4697 take argument from N.
4700 true test conditional.
4703 if-else-then conditional.
4709 default clause follows.
4712 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4714 at most N iterations.
4717 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4720 args from the rest of arguments.
4723 args from the rest args (lists).
4734 aborts if N <= M <= K
4736 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4739 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4742 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4748 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4750 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4752 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4753 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4754 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4755 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4756 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4757 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4761 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4765 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4771 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4774 Print a `#\space' character
4776 print N `#\space' characters.
4779 Print a `#\tab' character
4781 print N `#\tab' characters.
4784 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4785 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4786 must be a positive decimal number.
4789 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4790 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4791 be processed by `read'.
4794 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4795 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4796 be processed by `read'.
4799 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4802 prints format version.
4805 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4806 and format it accordingly.
4808 *** Configuration Variables
4810 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4811 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4812 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4813 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4816 format:symbol-case-conv
4817 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4818 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4819 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4820 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4821 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4823 format:iobj-case-conv
4824 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4825 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4828 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4831 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4837 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4838 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4839 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4840 `format' padding style.
4843 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4844 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4845 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4846 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4850 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4851 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4852 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4855 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4856 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4857 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4858 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4859 parameters or modifiers)).
4862 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4864 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4866 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4867 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4869 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4870 string-downcase! functions.
4872 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4873 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4875 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4878 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4881 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4882 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4884 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4886 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4887 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4889 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4890 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4891 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4892 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4893 would if STRING were input.
4895 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4897 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4898 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4899 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4900 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4903 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4905 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4906 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4909 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4911 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4912 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4914 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4915 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4917 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4918 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4919 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4920 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4922 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4923 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4925 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4926 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4927 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4929 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4930 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4932 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4933 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4934 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4935 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4936 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4938 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4939 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4940 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4941 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4942 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4943 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4945 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4946 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4947 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4950 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4951 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4952 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4953 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4954 the following grammar:
4955 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4956 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4957 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4958 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4959 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4960 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4961 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4962 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4963 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4964 last option in its combination)
4966 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4967 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4968 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4969 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4971 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4972 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4973 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4975 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4976 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4977 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4979 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4980 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4981 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4982 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4983 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4984 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4985 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4986 ordinary argument strings.
4988 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4989 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4990 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4991 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4993 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4994 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4996 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4997 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4998 - a required option is omitted
4999 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
5000 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
5001 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
5002 - an option predicate fails
5007 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
5010 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
5011 (verbose (required? #f)
5014 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
5015 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
5016 (predicate ,string?))))
5018 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
5019 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5021 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5022 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
5023 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
5024 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
5027 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
5029 It will be removed in a few releases.
5031 ** New syntax: lambda*
5032 ** New syntax: define*
5033 ** New syntax: define*-public
5034 ** New syntax: defmacro*
5035 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
5036 Guile now supports optional arguments.
5038 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
5039 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
5040 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
5041 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
5042 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
5044 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
5045 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
5046 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
5048 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
5050 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
5051 and examples for `lambda*':
5054 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
5056 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
5057 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
5058 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
5059 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
5060 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
5061 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
5062 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
5063 can be checked with the bound? macro.
5065 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
5067 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
5068 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
5069 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
5070 are given as keywords are bound to values.
5072 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
5073 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
5074 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
5075 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
5076 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
5077 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
5078 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
5079 and until the procedure is called.
5081 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
5083 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
5084 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
5085 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
5086 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
5087 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
5088 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
5089 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
5090 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
5091 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
5092 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
5094 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
5095 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
5096 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
5097 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
5100 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
5102 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
5103 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
5104 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
5105 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
5107 ** New syntax: and-let*
5108 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
5110 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
5111 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
5112 (<variable> <expression>)
5115 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
5116 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
5117 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
5120 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
5121 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
5122 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
5123 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
5124 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
5125 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
5126 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
5128 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
5129 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
5130 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
5131 shadow earlier bindings.
5133 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
5135 ** New sorting functions
5137 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
5138 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
5139 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
5140 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
5142 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
5143 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
5146 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5147 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
5148 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
5150 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
5151 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
5152 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
5153 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
5155 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5156 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
5157 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
5158 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
5159 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
5162 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5163 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
5164 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
5165 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
5166 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
5167 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
5169 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
5170 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
5171 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
5173 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5174 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
5175 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
5178 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
5179 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
5180 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
5182 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
5183 Added for compatibility with scsh.
5185 ** New built-in random number support
5187 *** New function: random N [STATE]
5188 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
5189 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
5190 returned have a uniform distribution.
5192 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
5193 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
5194 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
5195 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
5196 effect of the `random' operation.
5198 *** New variable: *random-state*
5199 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
5200 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
5201 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
5202 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
5203 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
5206 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
5207 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5208 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5209 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
5210 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
5212 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
5213 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5214 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5215 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
5216 initialized using SEED.
5218 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
5219 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
5220 range between 0 and 1.
5222 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5223 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
5224 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
5225 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
5226 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
5227 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
5228 or a uniform vector of doubles.
5230 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5231 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
5232 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
5233 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
5234 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
5235 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5237 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
5238 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
5239 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
5240 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
5242 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
5243 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
5244 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
5245 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5247 *** New function: random:exp STATE
5248 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
5249 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
5251 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
5253 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
5256 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
5257 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
5260 ** New function: make-guardian
5261 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
5262 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
5263 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
5264 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
5265 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
5267 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
5268 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
5269 one object if at all.
5271 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
5272 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
5273 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
5275 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
5276 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
5277 read again in last-in first-out order.
5279 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
5280 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
5282 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
5284 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
5285 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
5286 file position is used.
5288 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
5289 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
5290 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
5292 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
5293 redefined using seek.
5295 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
5296 size is not supplied.
5298 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
5299 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
5301 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
5302 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
5304 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
5306 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
5307 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
5308 and returns the contents as a single string.
5310 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
5311 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
5312 lists in serial order.
5314 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
5315 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
5316 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
5318 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
5319 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
5320 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
5321 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
5323 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
5324 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
5325 and #f if an error occured.
5327 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
5329 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
5330 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
5331 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
5332 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
5334 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
5336 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
5339 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
5341 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
5344 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5348 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
5349 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
5351 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
5352 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
5356 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5358 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
5360 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5361 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5363 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5365 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
5366 might change when we get the new module system.
5368 ** The smob interface
5370 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
5371 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
5373 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
5375 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
5379 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
5380 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
5381 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
5382 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
5383 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
5384 will be freed by the default free function.
5386 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5387 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
5388 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5389 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5391 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5392 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
5393 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5394 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5396 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
5398 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
5399 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
5403 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
5404 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5405 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5407 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
5408 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
5409 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5410 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5412 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
5413 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
5414 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
5416 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
5417 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
5418 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
5419 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
5421 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
5422 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
5423 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
5425 *** scm_newptob has been removed
5429 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
5431 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
5432 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
5433 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
5435 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
5436 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
5437 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
5439 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
5440 a string port's buffer.
5442 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
5443 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
5444 function pointers which together define the current random number
5445 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
5446 number library functions.
5448 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
5451 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
5452 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
5455 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
5456 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5458 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
5459 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
5461 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
5462 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
5465 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
5466 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
5467 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
5468 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
5470 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
5471 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
5472 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
5473 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
5474 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
5475 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
5476 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
5478 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
5479 by libguile and the application.
5481 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5482 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5483 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
5484 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
5486 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
5487 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
5489 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5490 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
5491 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
5493 ** Random number library functions
5494 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
5495 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
5496 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
5498 The default random state is stored in:
5500 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
5501 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
5502 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
5507 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
5509 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
5510 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
5511 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
5512 isn't a random state.
5514 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
5515 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
5517 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
5518 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
5519 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
5520 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
5522 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5523 Return 32 random bits.
5525 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5526 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
5528 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5529 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
5531 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5532 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
5534 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
5535 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5537 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
5538 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5539 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5543 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5545 * Changes to the distribution
5547 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5548 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5549 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5552 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5553 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5554 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5556 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5557 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5558 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5559 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5562 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5563 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5564 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5566 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5568 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5570 *** Function: batch-mode?
5572 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5575 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5577 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5578 case has not been implemented.
5580 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5581 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5582 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5585 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5586 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5588 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5590 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5592 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5594 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5595 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5598 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5599 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5600 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5601 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5604 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5606 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5607 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5608 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5609 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5610 find those libraries.
5612 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5613 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5616 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5618 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5619 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5620 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5621 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5623 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5624 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5625 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5629 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5631 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5632 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5633 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5636 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5637 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5638 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5639 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5641 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5642 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5645 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5646 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5647 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5648 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5649 compiler where to find the libraries.
5651 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5652 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5653 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5655 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5656 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5657 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5658 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5659 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5663 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5665 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5666 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5667 internationalization support.
5669 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5670 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5671 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5672 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5673 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5675 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5676 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5677 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5678 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5679 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5681 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5682 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5683 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5684 any GNU mirror site.
5686 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5688 ** New function: add-history STRING
5689 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5690 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5691 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5693 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5695 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5696 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5697 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5700 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5701 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5702 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5704 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5706 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5709 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5710 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5713 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5714 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5715 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5716 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5717 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5718 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5720 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5721 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5722 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5723 of the form mentioned above.
5725 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5726 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5727 returned in the special `rest' list.
5729 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5730 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5732 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5734 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5736 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5738 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5739 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5740 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5741 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5742 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5743 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5744 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5745 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5748 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5750 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5752 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5753 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5756 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5757 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5758 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5762 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5763 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5764 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5765 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5766 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5767 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5768 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5769 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5772 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5774 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5775 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5776 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5778 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5780 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5781 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5783 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5784 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5785 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5787 Why do we have this function?
5788 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5789 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5790 primitive, and display it differently, and
5791 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5792 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5795 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5796 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5799 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5800 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5801 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5802 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5804 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5805 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5808 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5809 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5811 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5813 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5814 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5815 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5816 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5817 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5818 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5819 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5822 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5824 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5825 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5827 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5828 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5829 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5830 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5831 properly continue the print chain.
5833 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5834 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5835 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5836 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5837 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5838 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5839 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5840 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5842 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5843 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5844 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5845 safest to not check for these pairs.
5847 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5848 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5849 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5850 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5852 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5854 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5855 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5857 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5859 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5861 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5862 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5863 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5865 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5866 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5867 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5869 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5870 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5871 the following functions and macros:
5873 Function: make-fluid
5875 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5876 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5877 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5878 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5879 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5881 Function: fluid? OBJ
5883 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5885 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5886 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5888 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5889 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5891 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5893 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5894 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5895 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5896 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5897 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5898 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5899 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5901 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5903 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5904 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5905 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5906 should evaluate to a fluid.
5908 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5910 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5911 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5912 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5913 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5914 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5916 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5919 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5921 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5923 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5925 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5928 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5929 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5930 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5931 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5932 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5935 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5936 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5937 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5939 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5940 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5941 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5943 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5944 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5945 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5946 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5948 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5949 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5950 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5951 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5953 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5954 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5955 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5956 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5958 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5959 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5960 their revealed counts set to zero.
5962 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5963 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5965 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5966 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5968 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5969 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5971 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5972 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5973 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5975 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5976 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5977 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5979 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5980 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5981 default environment inherited by child processes.
5983 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5984 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5985 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5987 The return value is unspecified.
5989 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5990 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5991 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5992 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5993 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5995 The return value is unspecified.
5997 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5998 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
6006 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
6007 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
6010 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
6013 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
6014 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
6015 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
6017 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
6018 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
6019 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
6020 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
6023 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
6024 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
6026 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
6027 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
6028 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
6029 the `environ' procedure.
6031 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
6032 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
6035 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
6036 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
6038 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
6039 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
6040 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
6041 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
6043 *** procedure: times
6044 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
6045 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
6046 return a selected component:
6049 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
6053 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
6056 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
6060 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
6061 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
6065 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
6066 terminated child processes.
6068 ** Removed: list-length
6069 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
6070 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
6072 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
6074 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
6076 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
6078 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
6079 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
6080 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
6081 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
6083 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
6084 extra complexity it introduces.
6086 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
6087 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
6089 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
6090 variable to any non-empty value.
6092 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
6093 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
6095 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6097 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
6098 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
6100 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
6102 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
6103 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
6105 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
6107 ** vector handling routines
6109 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
6110 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
6111 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
6112 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
6113 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
6115 ** pair and list routines
6117 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
6120 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
6122 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
6125 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6127 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
6129 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
6130 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
6131 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
6132 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
6133 site-specific initialization code.
6135 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
6136 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
6137 initialization processes.
6139 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
6140 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
6141 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
6142 initialized properly.
6144 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
6145 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
6146 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
6148 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
6149 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
6150 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
6151 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
6152 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
6154 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
6156 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
6157 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
6158 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
6159 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
6160 objects the smob refers to get marked.
6162 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
6163 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
6164 which look like this:
6167 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
6169 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
6170 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
6173 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
6174 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
6177 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
6179 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
6180 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
6181 you will need to change your functions slightly.
6183 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
6184 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
6185 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
6186 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
6187 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
6189 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
6190 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
6192 int (*free) (SCM port);
6193 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
6194 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
6195 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
6199 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
6200 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
6201 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
6203 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
6206 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
6207 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
6208 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
6210 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
6211 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
6212 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
6215 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
6219 struct timeval *timeout);
6221 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
6222 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
6223 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
6224 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
6225 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
6226 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
6228 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
6229 scm_catch_body_t body,
6231 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6234 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
6235 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
6236 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
6237 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
6238 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
6239 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
6241 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
6243 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6246 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
6247 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
6248 spawning threads from application C code.
6250 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
6251 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
6252 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
6253 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
6254 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
6255 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
6257 ** Removed functions:
6259 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
6260 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
6262 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
6264 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
6265 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
6267 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
6269 ** mbstrings are now removed
6271 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
6272 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
6274 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
6276 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
6277 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
6278 their new names and arguments:
6280 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
6281 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
6282 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
6283 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
6286 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
6288 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
6290 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
6293 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
6295 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
6296 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
6297 pass a #f arg to catch.
6299 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
6301 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
6302 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
6305 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
6306 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
6307 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
6308 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
6309 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
6310 reclaim its storage.
6312 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
6313 worrying that some other function you call will call
6314 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
6315 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
6316 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
6317 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
6320 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
6322 * Changes to the distribution
6324 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
6325 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
6328 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
6329 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
6331 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6332 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6334 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
6336 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
6337 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
6338 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
6340 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6342 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
6343 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
6344 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
6345 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
6346 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
6347 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
6349 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
6350 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
6351 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
6354 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
6355 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
6356 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
6357 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
6359 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
6360 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
6361 libraries to your link command:
6363 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
6364 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
6365 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6366 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6368 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
6369 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
6370 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
6372 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6374 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
6375 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
6378 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
6380 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
6381 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
6382 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
6383 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
6384 searched is system dependent.
6386 (dynamic-object? VAL)
6388 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
6390 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
6392 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
6393 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
6395 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6397 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
6398 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
6399 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
6400 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
6401 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
6404 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6406 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
6407 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
6408 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
6409 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
6410 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
6412 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
6414 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
6415 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
6417 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
6419 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
6420 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
6421 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
6424 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
6426 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
6427 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
6428 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
6429 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
6431 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
6432 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
6434 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
6436 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
6437 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
6439 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
6441 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
6442 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
6450 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
6452 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
6453 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
6454 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
6455 a more informative way.
6457 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
6458 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
6459 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
6460 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
6461 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
6462 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
6464 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
6465 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
6468 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
6469 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
6470 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
6473 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
6474 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
6475 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
6476 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
6477 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
6478 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
6480 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
6481 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
6482 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
6483 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
6486 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
6487 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
6488 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
6489 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
6490 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
6491 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
6493 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
6494 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
6495 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
6496 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
6497 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
6499 *** regexp functions
6501 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
6502 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
6503 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
6505 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
6506 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
6507 with SCSH regular expressions.
6509 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
6510 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
6511 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
6512 position of STR at which to begin matching.
6514 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
6515 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
6516 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
6517 `string-match' returns `#f'.
6519 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
6520 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
6521 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
6522 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
6523 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
6524 match strings against the compiled regexp.
6526 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
6527 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
6528 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
6529 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
6530 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
6532 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6534 **** Constant: regexp/extended
6535 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
6536 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
6537 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
6539 **** Constant: regexp/icase
6540 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
6541 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6543 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6544 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6546 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6549 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6550 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6551 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6553 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6554 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6555 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6557 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6558 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6559 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6560 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6561 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6564 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6566 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6567 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6568 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6569 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6570 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6571 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6573 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6574 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6575 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6577 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6578 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6581 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6582 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6584 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6585 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6586 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6587 may be one of the following arguments:
6589 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6591 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6593 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6594 the regexp match is written.
6596 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6597 following the regexp match is written.
6599 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6600 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6603 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6604 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6605 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6606 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6607 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6608 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6610 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6613 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6614 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6615 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6616 written out to PORT.
6618 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6619 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6620 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6621 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6622 will return after processing a single match.
6624 *** Match Structures
6626 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6627 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6628 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6629 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6630 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6631 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6634 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6635 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6636 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6637 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6638 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6640 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6641 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6642 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6644 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6645 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6646 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6647 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6648 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6650 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6651 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6653 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6654 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6656 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6657 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6659 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6660 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6662 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6663 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6664 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6665 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6667 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6668 Return the original TARGET string.
6670 *** Backslash Escapes
6672 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6673 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6674 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6675 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6676 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6677 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6679 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6680 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6681 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6682 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6683 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6684 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6685 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6686 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6688 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6689 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6690 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6691 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6692 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6693 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6694 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6696 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6697 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6698 return the resulting string.
6700 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6701 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6702 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6703 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6704 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6705 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6706 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6707 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6708 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6709 translated to the single character `*'.
6711 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6712 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6713 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6714 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6715 consecutive backslashes:
6717 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6719 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6720 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6721 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6723 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6724 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6725 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6726 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6727 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6728 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6730 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6732 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6733 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6734 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6735 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6736 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6737 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6738 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6739 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6740 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6741 cumbersome escape syntax.
6743 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6745 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6747 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6749 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6752 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6754 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6756 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6759 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6760 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6761 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6762 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6763 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6765 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6766 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6767 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6768 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6769 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6770 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6771 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6774 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6775 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6776 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6779 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6780 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6782 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6783 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6784 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6785 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6786 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6787 installed, you can say:
6789 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6792 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6794 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6795 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6796 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6797 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6798 new dynamic roots and threads.
6801 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6803 * Changes to the distribution.
6805 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6807 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6808 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6809 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6810 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6811 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6812 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6813 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6814 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6816 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6819 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6820 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6825 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6827 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6828 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6830 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6831 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6832 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6833 the (command-line) function.
6834 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6835 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6836 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6838 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6839 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6840 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6841 command line arguments
6842 -ds do -s script at this point
6843 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6844 -h, --help display this help and exit
6845 -v, --version display version information and exit
6846 \ read arguments from following script lines
6848 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6849 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6851 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6854 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6858 (main (command-line))
6860 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6862 ekko a speckled gecko
6864 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6865 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6866 following list of command-line arguments:
6868 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6870 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6871 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6872 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6873 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6874 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6876 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6878 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6880 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6881 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6884 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6885 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6886 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6887 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6889 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6890 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6891 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6892 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6894 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6898 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6902 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6904 ekko a speckled gecko
6906 Unix expands this into
6908 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6910 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6911 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6913 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6915 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6916 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6918 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6919 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6920 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6921 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6922 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6923 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6924 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6925 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6926 it only terminates the argument list.)
6927 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6928 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6929 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6930 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6931 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6932 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6933 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6934 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6936 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6938 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6939 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6940 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6941 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6942 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6944 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6945 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6946 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6948 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6950 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6951 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6952 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6953 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6956 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6957 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6958 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6960 * Changes to Scheme functions
6962 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6963 and disabled by default.
6965 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6966 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6967 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6968 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6970 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6972 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6974 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6975 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6977 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6978 (read-set! keywords #f)
6980 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6981 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6982 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6985 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6986 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6987 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6990 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6991 support for Scheme functions.
6993 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6994 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6995 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6996 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6999 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7000 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
7001 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
7004 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
7005 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
7006 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
7009 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
7010 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
7011 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
7012 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
7013 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
7014 display the result as a prompt.
7015 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
7017 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
7018 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
7019 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
7022 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
7023 procedure of zero arguments.
7025 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
7026 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
7027 argument is bound in the current module.
7029 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
7030 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
7031 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
7032 public bindings into the current module.
7034 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
7035 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
7037 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
7038 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
7040 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
7041 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
7043 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
7044 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
7046 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
7047 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
7049 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
7050 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
7051 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
7052 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
7053 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
7055 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
7056 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
7057 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
7058 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
7060 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
7063 ** Changes to I/O functions
7065 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
7066 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
7067 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
7069 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
7070 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
7071 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
7073 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
7074 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
7076 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
7077 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
7078 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
7079 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
7081 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
7083 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
7084 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
7086 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
7087 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
7088 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
7089 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
7090 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
7093 'trim omit delimiter from result
7094 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
7095 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
7096 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
7098 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
7100 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
7101 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
7103 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
7104 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
7105 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
7106 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
7107 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
7109 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
7110 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
7111 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
7113 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
7114 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
7115 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
7116 above, and defaults to 'peek.
7118 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
7119 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7121 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
7122 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
7124 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
7126 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
7127 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
7128 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
7129 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
7130 a delimiting character.
7131 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
7133 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
7134 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
7135 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
7136 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
7137 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
7138 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
7140 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
7141 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7143 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
7144 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
7145 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
7147 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
7148 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
7149 the array to read and write.
7151 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
7152 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
7155 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
7157 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
7160 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
7161 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
7162 Values for COMMAND are:
7164 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
7165 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
7166 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
7167 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
7168 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
7169 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
7170 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
7171 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
7173 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
7175 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
7176 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
7177 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
7178 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
7179 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
7180 corresponding return set will be the same.
7182 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
7185 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
7186 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
7187 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
7188 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
7189 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
7190 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
7191 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
7192 special file being created.
7194 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
7195 clashing with various SCSH forks.
7197 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
7198 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
7199 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
7200 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
7201 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
7202 and originating address.
7204 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
7205 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
7206 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
7208 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
7211 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
7212 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
7215 (status:exit-val STATUS)
7216 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
7217 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
7218 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
7219 this function returns #f.
7221 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
7222 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
7223 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
7226 (status:term-sig STATUS)
7227 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
7228 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
7231 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
7232 a valid STATUS value.
7234 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
7236 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
7237 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
7239 Component Accessor Setter
7240 ========================= ============ ============
7241 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
7242 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
7243 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
7244 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
7245 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
7246 year tm:year set-tm:year
7247 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
7248 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
7249 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
7250 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
7251 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
7253 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
7254 describing the host system:
7257 ============================================== ================
7258 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
7259 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
7260 release level of the operating system utsname:release
7261 version level of the operating system utsname:version
7262 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
7264 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
7265 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
7266 system's user database:
7269 ====================== =================
7270 user name passwd:name
7271 user password passwd:passwd
7274 real name passwd:gecos
7275 home directory passwd:dir
7276 shell program passwd:shell
7278 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
7279 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
7280 system's group database:
7283 ======================= ============
7284 group name group:name
7285 group password group:passwd
7287 group members group:mem
7289 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
7290 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
7294 ========================= ===============
7295 official name of host hostent:name
7296 alias list hostent:aliases
7297 host address type hostent:addrtype
7298 length of address hostent:length
7299 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
7301 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
7302 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
7306 ========================= ===============
7307 official name of net netent:name
7308 alias list netent:aliases
7309 net number type netent:addrtype
7310 net number netent:net
7312 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
7313 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
7317 ========================= ===============
7318 official protocol name protoent:name
7319 alias list protoent:aliases
7320 protocol number protoent:proto
7322 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
7323 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
7327 ========================= ===============
7328 official service name servent:name
7329 alias list servent:aliases
7330 port number servent:port
7331 protocol to use servent:proto
7333 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
7334 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
7337 ======================================== ===============
7338 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
7339 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
7340 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
7341 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
7343 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
7344 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
7345 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
7347 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
7348 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
7350 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
7351 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
7353 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
7354 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
7356 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
7358 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
7360 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
7361 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
7362 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
7364 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
7365 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
7366 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
7367 return the remaining characters as a string.
7369 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
7370 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
7371 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
7373 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
7375 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7377 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
7380 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
7383 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
7384 and returns the array
7386 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
7387 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
7388 the user to interpret the data both ways.
7390 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7392 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
7393 symbol's value from C code:
7395 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
7396 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
7397 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
7398 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
7400 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
7401 without assigning them a value.
7403 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
7404 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
7405 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
7407 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
7408 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
7409 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
7411 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
7412 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
7414 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
7415 doesn't actually care about that.
7417 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
7418 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
7419 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
7421 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
7422 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
7423 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
7424 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
7425 which we have just created and initialized.
7427 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
7428 should one occur. We call it like this:
7429 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
7431 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
7432 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
7433 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
7434 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
7435 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
7436 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
7439 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
7440 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
7441 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
7442 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
7443 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
7444 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
7445 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
7448 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
7449 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
7450 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
7451 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
7452 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
7455 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
7456 scm_internal_catch, except:
7458 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
7459 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
7460 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
7461 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
7464 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
7465 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
7466 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
7468 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
7469 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
7470 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
7471 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
7474 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
7475 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
7476 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
7478 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
7479 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
7480 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
7481 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
7482 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
7484 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
7485 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
7486 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
7488 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
7489 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
7490 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
7492 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
7493 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
7495 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
7496 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
7497 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
7500 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
7501 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
7502 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
7503 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
7504 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
7505 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
7506 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
7509 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
7510 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
7512 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
7513 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
7514 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
7515 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
7516 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
7519 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
7520 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
7522 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
7523 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
7526 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
7527 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
7529 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7532 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
7533 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
7534 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
7535 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
7536 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
7537 given the following arguments:
7539 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7541 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7543 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7545 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7548 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7549 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7550 command-line arguments.
7552 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7553 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7554 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7555 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7556 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7557 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7560 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7563 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7564 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7566 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7567 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7569 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7570 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7571 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7572 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7574 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7575 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7577 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7578 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7579 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7580 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7582 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7583 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7585 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7586 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7588 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7590 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7591 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7592 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7595 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7596 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7598 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7599 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7604 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7607 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7609 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7610 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7611 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7612 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7614 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7616 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7618 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7619 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7620 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7621 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7622 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7623 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7624 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7625 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7626 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7627 for more information.
7629 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7630 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7632 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7633 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7634 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7635 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7636 following two lines at the top of the file:
7638 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7641 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7642 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7643 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7645 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7647 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7649 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7652 (display (car args))
7653 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7655 (loop (cdr args)))))
7658 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7659 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7660 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7661 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7662 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7663 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7667 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7670 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7673 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7675 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7676 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7677 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7678 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7679 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7682 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7683 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7684 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7685 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7686 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7689 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7692 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7693 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7694 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7697 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7698 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7699 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7701 to see a backtrace, and
7702 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7703 to see them by default.
7707 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7709 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7711 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7712 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7715 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7716 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7717 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7718 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7721 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7722 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7723 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7724 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7725 functions which inspired them.
7727 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7728 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7732 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7734 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7736 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7737 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7740 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7741 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7742 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7744 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7745 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7746 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7747 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7748 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7750 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7752 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7753 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7754 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7757 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7760 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7762 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7763 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7764 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7765 above should serve their purposes.
7767 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7768 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7769 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7770 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7772 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7775 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7776 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7777 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7778 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7780 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7781 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7782 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7783 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7785 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7786 for the `read' function.
7789 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7790 to that of `integer?'.
7792 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7793 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7795 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7796 it simply returns the object's property list.
7798 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7799 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7800 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7801 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7803 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7805 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7808 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7810 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7811 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7813 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7815 void (*main_func) (),
7818 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7819 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7820 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7821 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7822 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7824 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7825 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7826 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7827 know which arguments have been processed.
7829 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7830 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7831 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7832 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7833 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7835 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7836 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7837 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7838 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7839 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7840 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7841 people from making that mistake.
7843 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7844 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7846 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7848 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7852 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7855 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7856 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7857 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7858 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7861 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7862 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7863 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7864 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7867 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7868 have been added to the Guile library.
7870 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7871 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7872 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7875 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7876 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7877 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7879 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7880 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7881 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7882 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7883 argument from the list.
7886 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7889 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7890 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7892 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7893 to a Scheme port object.
7895 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7896 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7901 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7903 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7904 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7905 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7906 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7907 code as a special datatype.
7909 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7910 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7911 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7912 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7913 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7916 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7917 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7918 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7919 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7920 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7922 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7925 Copyright information:
7927 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7929 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7930 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7931 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7932 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7934 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7935 of this document, or of portions of it,
7936 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7937 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7942 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"