1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the stable branch:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
25 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
26 At the moment it is being used to handle Guile's bignums.
28 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
30 Guile now has config.h and libguile/scmconfig.h. The former is not
31 installed and is private. The latter is installed and used by Guile's
32 public headers. config.h is generated by configure and autoheader,
33 and scmconfig.h is generated by a small C program, gen-scmconfig at
34 build time based in part on the contents of config.h.
36 Seen libguile/__scm.h and gen-scmconfig.c for more information.
38 Note too that nearly all public defines are now set to either 1 or 0
39 rather than being set to 1 or left undefined. See gen-scmconfig.c and
40 the GNU Coding Guidelines for the rationale. However, pre-existing
41 defines that were not renamed were not changed. i.e. GUILE_DEBUG is
42 still either 1 or undefined.
44 ** The INSTALL file is now the generic automake installed one.
46 Guile specific instructions can be found in the README.
48 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
50 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
51 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
52 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
53 so the current effective-version is "1.6". The effective version
54 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
55 items like the versioned share directory name
56 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.6.
58 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
59 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
60 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
61 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
62 with each micro release during a stable series.
64 ** Thread implementation has changed.
66 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
67 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
68 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
69 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
70 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
73 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
74 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
75 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
76 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
77 the GC. See the manual for details. [XXX - write this.]
79 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
80 in which case "null" threads are used.
82 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
84 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
85 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
86 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
87 in parallel to other sections.
89 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
90 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
91 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
92 serial section (including itself).
94 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
95 inner-most construct is in effect.
97 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
100 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
101 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
102 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
105 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
106 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
107 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
110 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
111 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
112 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
113 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
114 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
115 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
117 ** New module (srfi srfi-26)
119 This is an implementation of SRFI-26.
121 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
123 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
124 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
126 ** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
128 We now use a modified version of libltdl that allows us to make
129 improvements to it without having to rely on libtool releases.
131 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
133 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
134 provided. Use 'make html'.
136 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
138 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
140 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
141 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
143 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
145 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
146 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
148 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
150 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
151 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
154 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
157 (define-module (demo)
161 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
164 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
166 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings and
167 mutation-sharing substrings.
169 Two new procedures are related to this: substring/shared and
170 substring/copy. See the manual for more information.
172 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
174 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
177 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
179 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
180 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
181 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
184 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
185 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
186 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
189 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
191 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
192 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
193 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
196 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
199 ** Checking for duplicate bindings in module system
201 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
204 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more duplicates
205 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
213 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
214 has been detected is to
216 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
217 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
218 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
221 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
224 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
226 to your .guile init file.
228 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
230 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
232 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
233 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
234 tried until a binding is selected.
236 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
238 check report an error for bindings with a common name
239 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
240 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
241 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
242 and accept the override
243 first select the first encountered binding (override)
244 last select the last encountered binding (override)
246 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
248 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
249 into an <extended-generic>
250 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
252 The default duplicates handler is:
254 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
256 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
257 behavior) can be installed with:
259 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
261 ** New define-module option: :replace
263 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
266 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
267 for the core binding `format'.
269 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
271 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
272 a prefix to all imported bindings.
275 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
277 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
280 ** Merging generic functions
282 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
283 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
286 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
287 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
288 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
290 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
291 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
292 generic functions sharing a common name:
294 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
295 :use-module (oop goops)
298 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
299 :use-module (oop goops)
302 (define-module (my-module)
303 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
304 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
305 :duplicates merge-generics)
307 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
310 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
311 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
312 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
315 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
316 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
317 functions, extending its ancestors.
319 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
320 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
321 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
323 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
324 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
325 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
326 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
329 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
330 adding it to the ancestor.
332 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
333 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
335 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
337 ** New function: effective-version
339 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
340 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
341 to the distribution" above.
343 ** Futures: future, make-future, future-ref
345 Futures are like promises, but begun immediately in a new thread. See
346 the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
348 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
350 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
351 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
353 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
355 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
356 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
357 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
358 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
361 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
362 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
363 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
364 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
366 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
367 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
370 ** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
372 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
374 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
376 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
377 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
379 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
381 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
382 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
385 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
387 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
389 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
391 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
392 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
393 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
396 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
397 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
398 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
401 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
402 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
404 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
406 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
407 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
410 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
411 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
413 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
414 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
415 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
416 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
417 level for the current thread.
419 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
421 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
423 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
424 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
427 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
429 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
431 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
434 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
436 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
439 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
440 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
441 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
443 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
444 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
445 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
446 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
457 ERROR: Numerical overflow
459 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
462 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
464 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
465 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
466 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
477 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
479 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
480 them is also done exactly, of course:
485 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
488 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
489 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
491 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
493 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
494 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
495 equal to a floating point number. For example:
497 (inexact->exact 1.234)
498 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
500 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
502 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
505 ** New function 'rationalize'.
507 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
508 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
510 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
513 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
514 result when both its arguments are exact.
516 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
518 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
519 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
520 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
522 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
524 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
525 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
526 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
528 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
531 ** pretty-print has more options.
533 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
534 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
535 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
537 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
539 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
540 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
541 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
543 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
545 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
546 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
548 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
550 Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
551 to use r5rs macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done
552 during evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
554 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
556 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
557 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
558 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
559 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
560 without the soft port blocking.
562 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
564 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
565 chapter in the reference manual.
567 ** Deprecated: undefine
569 There is no replacement for undefine.
571 ** call-with-output-string doesn't segv on closed port
573 Previously call-with-output-string would give a segmentation fault if
574 the string port was closed by the called function. An exception is
577 ** (ice-9 popen) duplicate pipe fd fix
579 open-pipe, open-input-pipe and open-output-pipe left an extra copy of
580 their pipe file descriptor in the child, which was normally harmless,
581 but it can prevent the parent seeing eof or a broken pipe immediately
582 and has now been fixed.
584 ** source-properties and set-source-properties! fix
586 Properties set with set-source-properties! can now be read back
587 correctly with source-properties.
591 delete and delete! now call the "=" procedure with arguments in the
592 order described by the SRFI-1 specification
594 list-copy now accepts improper lists, per the specification.
598 Larger values in 64-bit vectors should print correctly now.
602 date-week-number now correctly respects the requested day of week
605 * Changes to the C interface
607 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
609 This is a milder form of deprecation.
611 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
612 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
613 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
614 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
615 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
617 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
618 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
620 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
621 Scheme values has been added.
623 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
624 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
629 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
630 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
632 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
634 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
635 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
638 - SCM scm_from_<type>) (<type> val, ...)
640 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
641 scm_from_int for ints.
643 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
644 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
645 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
647 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
649 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
650 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
651 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
654 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
656 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
658 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
660 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
661 although they only work correctly with fixnums. Use the following
664 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
665 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
666 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
667 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
669 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these, scm_to_int, etc. will
670 do the validating for you.
672 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
673 have been discouraged.
675 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
676 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
679 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
681 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
682 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
685 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
687 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
690 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
691 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
693 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
694 scm_truncate_number should have.
696 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
697 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
699 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
702 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
703 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
704 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
706 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
707 easier to use from C.
709 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
710 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
712 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
713 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
714 mutation-sharing substrings and later, when Guile switches to some
717 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
718 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
719 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc.
721 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
722 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
723 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
724 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
725 and is thus quite efficient.
727 ** Some string and symbol functions have been discouraged.
729 They don't fot into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
730 about the character encoding.
732 Replace according to the following table:
734 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
735 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
736 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
737 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
738 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
739 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
740 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
741 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_make_symbol + scm_from_locale_stringn
742 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
744 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
745 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
747 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
749 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which return a pointer
750 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
752 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
753 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
754 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
755 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
757 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
759 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
760 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
761 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
763 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
764 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
766 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
767 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
768 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
769 smob words. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
771 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and reentries.
773 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
774 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
775 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
776 prevent a potential memory leak:
785 mem = scm_malloc (100);
786 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
788 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
789 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
796 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
797 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
801 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
803 ** New function scm_frame_free
805 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
806 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
807 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
809 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
811 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
812 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
813 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
815 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
817 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
818 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
820 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
822 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
823 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
825 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
827 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
828 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
829 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
831 ** scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed from public use.
833 For guile internal use, the functions scm_i_unmemocopy_expr,
834 scm_i_unmemocopy_body and scm_i_unmemoize_expr are provided to replace
835 scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize. User code should not have used
836 scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize and thus should not use the replacement
839 Background: Formerly, scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize would have allowed to
840 unmemoize a single expression as well as a sequence of body forms. This would
841 have lead to problems when unmemoizing code of the new memoizer. Now the two
842 cases have to be distinguished.
845 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
847 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
848 private or renamed with a more suitable public name. See below for
849 the ones which have been renamed.
851 ** HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H have been removed from public use.
853 HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H removed from public use. These are
854 no longer needed since the older uses of stdint.h and inttypes.h are
855 now handled by configure.in and gen-scmconfig.c.
857 ** USE_DLL_IMPORT is no longer defined publically.
859 gen-scmconfig now uses it to decide what contents to place in the
860 public scmconfig.h header without adding the USE_DLL_IMPORT itself.
862 ** HAVE_LIMITS_H has been removed from public use.
864 gen-scmconfig now just uses HAVE_LIMITS_H to decide whether or not to
865 add a limits.h include in scmconfig.h.
867 ** time.h, sys/time.h, etc. #ifdefery has been removed from public headers.
869 gen-scmconfig now just uses the same logic to decide what time related
870 #includes to add to scmconfig.h.
872 ** HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC has been removed from public use.
874 scmconfig.h now just defines scm_t_timespec.
876 ** HAVE_PTRDIFF has been removed from public use and Guile doesn't
879 Guile now publically defines scm_t_ptrdiff and
880 SCM_SIZEOF_SCM_T_PTRDIFF in scmconfig.h, and all occurrences of
881 ptrdiff_t have been replaced with scm_t_ptrdiff.
883 Guile defines its own type this rather than just relying on ptrdiff_t
884 and SCM_SIZEOF_PTRDIFF_T because Guile actually typedefs long to
885 scm_t_ptrdiff when ptrdiff_t isn't available. A public "typedef long
886 ptrdiff_t" could conflict with other headers.
888 ** HAVE_UINTPTR_T and HAVE_UINTPTR_T have been removed from public use.
890 They are replaced by public definitions of SCM_SIZEOF_UINTPTR_T and
891 SCM_SIZEOF_INTPTR_T. These are defined to 0 if the corresponding type
894 ** The public #define STDC_HEADERS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_STDC_HEADERS.
896 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
898 ** The public #define HAVE_SYS_SELECT has been renamed to
899 SCM_HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H.
901 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
903 ** The public #define HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H has been renamed to
904 SCM_HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H.
906 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
908 ** The public #define HAVE_IEEEFP_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_IEEEFP_H.
910 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
912 ** The public #define HAVE_NAN_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_NAN_H.
914 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
916 ** The public #define HAVE_WINSOCK2_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_WINSOCK2_H.
918 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
920 ** The public #define HAVE_ARRAYS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_ARRAYS.
922 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
924 ** The public #define STACK_GROWS_UP has been renamed to SCM_STACK_GROWS_UP.
926 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
928 ** The public #define USE_PTHREAD_THREADS has been renamed to
929 SCM_USE_PTHREAD_THREADS.
931 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
933 ** The public #define USE_NULL_THREADS has been renamed to
934 SCM_USE_NULL_THREADS.
936 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
938 ** The public #define USE_COOP_THREADS has been renamed to
939 SCM_USE_COOP_THREADS.
941 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
943 ** SCM_C_INLINE is publically defined if possible.
945 If the platform has a way to define inline functions, SCM_C_INLINE
946 will be defined to that text. Otherwise it will be undefined. This
947 is a little bit different than autoconf's normal handling of the
948 inline define via AC_C_INLINE.
950 ** Guile now publically defines some basic type infrastructure.
955 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_CHAR
957 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_SHORT
959 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG
961 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_INT
962 SCM_SIZEOF_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
963 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
972 Guile always defines these to 0 or 1
977 and when either of these are defined to 1, also defines
988 ** The macro SCM_IFLAGP now only returns true for flags
990 User code should never have used this macro anyway. And, you should not use
991 it in the future either. Thus, the following explanation is just for the
992 impropable case that your code actually made use of this macro, and that you
993 are willing to depend on internals which will probably change in the near
996 Formerly, SCM_IFLAGP also returned true for evaluator bytecodes created with
997 SCM_MAKSPCSYM (short instructions) and evaluator bytecodes created with
998 SCM_MAKISYM (short instructions). Now, SCM_IFLAG only returns true for
999 Guile's special constants created with SCM_MAKIFLAG. To achieve the old
1000 behaviour, instead of
1004 you would have to write
1006 (SCM_ISYMP(x) || SCM_IFLAGP(x))
1008 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1010 This macro is not intended for public use. However, if you allocated types
1011 with tc16 type codes in a way that you would have needed this macro, you are
1012 expected to have a deep knowledge of Guile's type system. Thus, you should
1013 know how to replace this macro.
1015 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1017 Use SCM_INEXACTP instead.
1019 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1021 Use SCM_REALP instead.
1023 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1025 Use SCM_COMPLEXP instead.
1027 ** The preprocessor define USE_THREADS has been deprecated.
1029 Going forward, assume that the thread API is always present.
1031 ** The preprocessor define GUILE_ISELECT has been deprecated.
1033 Going forward, assume that scm_internal_select is always present.
1035 ** The preprocessor define READER_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
1037 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
1038 READER_EXTENSIONS are always present.
1040 ** The preprocessor define DEBUG_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
1042 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
1043 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS are always present.
1045 ** The preprocessor define DYNAMIC_LINKING has been deprecated.
1047 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
1048 DYNAMIC_LINKING are always present.
1050 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1052 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1053 programs. (Do not use.)
1055 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1057 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1058 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1059 to the distribution" above.
1061 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1063 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1064 arguments are now passed directly:
1066 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1068 This is an incompatible change.
1070 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1072 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1073 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1074 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1076 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1077 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1079 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1081 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1083 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1084 function in the init section.
1086 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1088 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
1090 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
1092 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
1093 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
1094 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
1096 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1098 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1099 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1100 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1101 stays roughly constant.
1103 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1104 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1105 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1106 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1107 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1110 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1111 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1112 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1113 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1115 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1117 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1119 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1121 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1122 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1123 initializes a new cell (see below).
1125 ** New functions for memory management
1127 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1128 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1129 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1130 cause aborts in long running programs.
1132 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1133 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1135 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1136 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1137 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1138 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1139 details and for upgrading instructions.
1141 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1142 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1143 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1145 ** New function: scm_str2string
1147 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
1150 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1152 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1153 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1154 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1155 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1156 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1158 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1159 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1160 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1162 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1163 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1165 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1167 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
1168 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
1169 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
1170 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1172 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1174 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1177 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1179 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1181 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1183 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or, probably better, to use r5rs
1184 macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done during
1185 evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
1187 ** Removed from scm_root_state: def_inp, def_outp, def_errp, together
1188 with corresponding macros scm_def_inp, scm_def_outp and scm_def_errp.
1189 These were undocumented and unused copies of the standard ports at the
1190 time that Guile was initialised. Normally the current ports should be
1191 used instead, obtained from scm_current_input_port () etc. If an
1192 application needs to retain earlier ports, it should save them in a
1193 gc-protected location.
1195 ** Removed compile time option MEMOIZE_LOCALS
1197 Now, caching of local variable positions during memoization is mandatory.
1198 However, the option to disable the caching has most probably not been used
1201 ** Removed compile time option SCM_RECKLESS
1203 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
1204 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
1206 ** Removed compile time option SCM_CAUTIOUS
1208 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
1209 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
1211 ** Deprecated configure flags USE_THREADS and GUILE_ISELECT
1213 Previously, when the C preprocessor macro USE_THREADS was defined,
1214 libguile included a thread API. This API is now always included, even
1215 when threads are not really supported. Thus, you don't need to test
1218 Analogously, GUILE_ISELECT was defined when the function
1219 scm_internal_select was provided by Guile. This function is now
1220 always defined, and GUILE_ISELECT with it.
1222 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1224 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1225 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1227 ** Deprecated definitions of error strings: scm_s_expression, scm_s_test,
1228 scm_s_body, scm_s_bindings, scm_s_variable, scm_s_clauses, scm_s_formals
1230 These error message strings were used to issue syntax error messages by
1231 guile's evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1233 ** Deprecated helper macros for evaluation and application: SCM_EVALIM2,
1234 SCM_EVALIM, SCM_XEVAL, SCM_XEVALCAR
1236 These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
1237 that they have been used by user code.
1239 ** Deprecated helper functions for evaluation and application:
1240 scm_m_expand_body, scm_macroexp
1242 These functions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1243 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1245 ** Deprecated functions and variables for evaluation and application:
1246 scm_ceval, scm_deval and scm_ceval_ptr
1248 These functions and variables were used in the implementation of the
1249 evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code. If you have
1250 used these functions, switch to scm_eval or scm_eval_x.
1252 ** Deprecated functions for unmemoization: scm_unmemocar
1254 ** Deprecated definitions for iloc and isym handling
1256 SCM_ILOC00, SCM_IDINC, SCM_IDSTMSK, SCM_IFRINC, SCM_ICDR, SCM_IFRAME,
1257 SCM_IDIST, SCM_ICDRP, SCM_ISYMNUM, SCM_ISYMCHARS, scm_isymnames.
1259 These definitions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1260 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1262 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify,
1263 scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify,
1264 scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify, scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell,
1265 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH,
1266 SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY,
1267 SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
1268 scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL,
1269 SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL,
1270 SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS,
1271 scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var, *top-level-lookup-closure*,
1272 scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, scm_eval2,
1273 root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP,
1274 scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring,
1275 sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig,
1276 scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big,
1277 scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, SCM_SETCHARS,
1278 SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
1279 SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS,
1280 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern,
1281 scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1282 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1283 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1284 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1285 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1286 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1287 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1288 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1289 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1290 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1291 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1292 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1293 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1295 ** Deprecated definitions for debugging: scm_debug_mode, SCM_DEBUGGINGP
1297 These functions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1298 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1300 ** Removed macro SCM_MAKSPCSYM
1302 This macro was used for defining byte codes of the evaluator. It is almost
1303 impossible that user code has used this macro.
1306 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1308 * Changes to the distribution
1310 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1312 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1314 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1315 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1316 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1317 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1318 indicate major changes in Guile.
1320 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1321 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1322 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1323 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1325 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1326 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1327 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1328 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1329 micro version number.
1331 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1333 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1335 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1336 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1338 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1340 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1341 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1342 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1344 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1346 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1347 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1348 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1351 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1353 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1356 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1358 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1359 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1361 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1363 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1364 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1367 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1369 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1372 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1375 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1377 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1379 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1380 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1381 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1383 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1385 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1387 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1390 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1392 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1394 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1396 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1397 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1398 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1400 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1402 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1404 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1405 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1414 See README there for more info.
1416 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1417 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1420 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1422 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1424 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1426 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1427 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1428 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1430 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1432 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1433 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1434 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1436 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1437 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1439 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1442 (oop goops describe)
1444 (oop goops active-slot)
1445 (oop goops composite-slot)
1447 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1448 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1449 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1451 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1453 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1454 in the default environment:
1456 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1457 %read-line write-line
1459 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1460 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1462 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1464 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1467 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1468 can be used for similar functionality.
1470 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1472 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1473 it defines two procedures:
1475 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1477 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1478 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1479 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1482 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1484 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1485 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1486 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1487 write large strings.
1489 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1491 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1492 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1494 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1496 for complete documentation.
1498 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1500 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1501 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1502 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1503 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1505 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1506 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1510 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1511 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1512 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1515 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1518 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1519 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1521 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1522 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1525 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1528 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1530 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1532 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1534 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1536 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1537 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1538 Scheme programs easier.
1540 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1541 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1542 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1543 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1544 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1547 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1548 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1550 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1553 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1555 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1556 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1557 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1560 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1562 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1564 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1565 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1566 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1567 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1568 was also ASCII, for example.
1570 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1572 tag - no replacement.
1573 fseek - replaced by seek.
1574 list* - replaced by cons*.
1576 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1580 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1581 (define m (make-safe-module))
1582 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1583 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1584 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1586 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1588 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1589 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1590 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1592 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1594 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1595 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1596 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1597 from the issues related to the module system.
1599 *** New function: load-extension
1601 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1603 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1605 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1606 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1607 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1609 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1611 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1612 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1613 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1614 support dynamic linking).
1616 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1618 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1619 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1620 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1621 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1624 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1625 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1626 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1627 library and initialize it explicitely.
1629 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1630 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1632 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1634 (define-module (foo bar))
1636 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1638 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1640 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1641 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1643 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1644 (null-environment 5)
1645 (interaction-environment)
1651 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1653 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1654 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1655 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1656 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1658 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1659 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1660 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1661 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1662 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1663 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1664 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1665 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1666 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1667 one eval to the next.
1669 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1670 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1671 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1672 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1673 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1675 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1676 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1677 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1678 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1679 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1680 used in a lexical environment.
1682 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1683 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1684 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1685 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1686 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1687 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1689 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1691 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1692 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1693 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1694 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1695 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1697 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1698 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1699 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1701 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1702 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1704 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1705 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1706 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1708 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1709 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1711 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1712 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1713 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1714 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1717 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1718 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1719 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1720 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1722 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1723 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1724 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1726 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1727 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1728 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1729 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1730 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1732 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1734 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1735 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1736 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1738 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1739 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1740 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1742 See manual for more info.
1744 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1746 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1747 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1748 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1750 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1752 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1753 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1754 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1756 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1757 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1758 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1759 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1761 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1763 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1764 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1766 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1767 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1768 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1769 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1770 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1773 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1774 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1775 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1776 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1777 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1778 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1780 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1781 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1782 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1783 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1784 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1786 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1787 objects are usually permanent.
1789 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1790 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1792 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1794 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1795 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1798 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1802 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1807 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1809 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1810 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1811 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1812 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1814 ** New function `make-object-property'
1816 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1817 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1821 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1822 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1826 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1827 source properties eventually.
1829 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1831 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1832 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1833 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1835 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1836 will be removed in the next release.
1838 ** New define-module option: pure
1840 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1845 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1848 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1850 Export names NAME1 ...
1852 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1853 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1857 (define-module (foo)
1859 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1862 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1867 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1869 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1871 ** New function: port? X
1873 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1874 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1876 ** New function: file-port?
1878 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1880 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1882 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1883 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1884 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1885 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1886 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1888 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1890 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1891 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1892 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1893 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1894 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1897 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1899 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1900 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1901 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1902 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1905 ** New function: crypt password salt
1907 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1910 ** New function: chroot path
1912 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1914 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1916 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1919 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1921 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1923 ** New function: getpass prompt
1925 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1928 ** New function: flock file operation
1930 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1932 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1934 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1937 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1939 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1940 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1941 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1942 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1943 of the temporary file.
1945 ** New function: open-input-string string
1947 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1948 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1949 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1951 ** New function: open-output-string
1953 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1954 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1956 ** New function: get-output-string
1958 Return the contents of an output string port.
1960 ** New function: identity
1962 Return the argument.
1964 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1965 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1967 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1969 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1970 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1971 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1974 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1975 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1977 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1979 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1980 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1981 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1984 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1985 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1986 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1990 Use `identity' instead.
1996 ** Deprecated: return-it
2000 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2002 Use `string-length' instead.
2004 ** Deprecated: flags
2006 Use `logior' instead.
2008 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2010 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2011 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2012 port-for-each is more flexible.
2014 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2015 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2016 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2018 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2020 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2022 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2024 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2026 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2028 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2029 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2031 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2032 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2034 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2035 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2037 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2039 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2040 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2042 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2043 Use module system operations for all variables.
2045 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2047 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2050 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2052 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2053 The following bugs have been fixed:
2055 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2056 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2059 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2060 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2061 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2063 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2064 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2066 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2067 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2070 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2071 The expansion used to be like so:
2073 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2075 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2077 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2079 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2080 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2082 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2084 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2085 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2086 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2090 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2091 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2093 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2098 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2099 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2101 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2102 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2103 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2105 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2108 * Changes to the C interface
2110 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2112 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2113 with "_t". What a concept.
2115 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2117 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2119 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2123 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2124 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2126 *** C Functions removed
2128 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2129 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2130 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2131 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2132 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2133 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2134 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2136 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2138 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2140 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2142 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2144 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2145 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2147 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2149 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2152 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2154 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2156 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2158 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2159 Evaluation" in the manual.
2161 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2163 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2164 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2166 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2168 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2169 Constructors" in the manual.
2171 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2173 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2174 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2176 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2178 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2180 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2181 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2182 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2184 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2186 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2188 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2189 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2190 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2193 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2195 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2197 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2198 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2200 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2202 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2203 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2204 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2205 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2207 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2208 scm_primitive_property_ref
2209 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2210 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2212 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2213 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2215 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2217 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2218 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2219 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2220 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2222 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2224 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2225 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2226 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2227 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2228 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2229 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2230 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2232 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2233 scm_remember_upto_here
2235 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2237 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2239 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2240 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2242 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2244 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2246 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2248 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2250 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2252 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2253 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2254 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2255 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2256 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2257 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2259 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2261 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2263 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2264 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2265 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2267 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2269 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2270 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2271 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2273 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2275 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2276 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2279 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2282 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2283 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2286 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2288 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2290 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2292 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2294 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2296 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2298 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2299 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2300 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2301 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2302 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2303 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2304 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2305 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2306 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2307 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2308 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2309 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2310 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2311 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2312 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2314 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2315 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2316 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2317 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2318 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2319 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2320 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2321 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2322 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2323 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2324 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2325 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2326 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2327 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2328 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2329 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2330 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2331 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2332 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2333 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2334 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2335 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2336 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2337 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2338 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2339 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2340 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2341 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2342 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2344 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2346 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2348 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2349 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2351 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2353 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2355 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2357 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2359 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2361 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2363 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2365 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2367 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2370 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2371 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2373 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2375 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2377 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2379 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2381 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2383 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2385 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2387 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2390 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2392 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2394 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2396 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2397 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2399 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2400 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2402 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2404 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2405 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2406 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2408 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2410 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2412 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2413 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2415 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2416 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2417 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2418 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2420 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2421 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2422 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2424 Use the new ones from above instead.
2426 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2428 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2429 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2430 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2432 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2433 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2435 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2436 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2439 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2440 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2442 Use the new functions instead.
2444 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2447 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2449 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2451 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2454 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2456 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2459 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2461 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2464 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2465 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2466 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2468 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2470 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2471 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2473 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2474 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2475 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2476 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2479 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2481 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2482 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2483 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2484 inexact for an exact.
2486 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2487 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2488 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2491 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2492 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2493 accept an inexact argument.
2495 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2496 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2498 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2501 ** New number validation macros:
2502 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2506 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2508 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2509 scm_unprotect_object.
2511 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2513 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2515 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2518 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2520 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2524 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2526 * Changes to the distribution
2528 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2530 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2531 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2532 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2533 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2534 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2535 obtain these programs.
2536 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2537 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2539 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2540 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2541 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2542 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2543 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2545 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2546 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2547 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2548 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2552 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2555 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2556 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2557 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2558 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2560 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2562 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2564 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2565 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2567 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2568 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2570 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2571 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2573 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2574 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2575 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2576 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2578 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2580 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2584 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2585 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2587 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2589 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2590 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2592 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2593 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2594 number of objects of that kind.
2596 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2598 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2599 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2600 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2601 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2602 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2604 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2606 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2608 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2610 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2613 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2615 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2617 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2619 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2621 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2623 ** New command line option --debug
2625 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2627 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2629 ** New help facility
2631 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2632 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2633 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2634 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2635 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2636 (help) gives this text
2638 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2639 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2641 Examples: (help help)
2643 (help "output-string")
2645 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2647 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2649 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2650 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2653 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2654 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2655 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2658 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2659 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2660 use absolute filenames when possible.
2662 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2663 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2664 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2667 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2669 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2670 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2671 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2672 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2674 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2676 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2678 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2679 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2680 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2682 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2683 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2684 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2686 (read-enable 'positions)
2687 (debug-enable 'debug)
2689 ** Backtraces in scripts
2691 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2695 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2697 at the top of the script.
2699 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2700 The second enables backtraces.)
2702 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2704 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2705 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2706 substantially faster than before.
2708 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2709 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2711 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2712 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2714 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2716 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2717 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2718 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2720 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2721 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2722 when this hook is run in the future.
2724 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2725 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2727 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2729 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2730 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2733 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2734 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2735 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2737 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2738 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2740 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2741 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2743 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2744 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2745 in order not to need further allocation.)
2747 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2750 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2751 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2752 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2753 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2755 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2757 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2760 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2762 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2765 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2766 GC in percent of total heap size
2769 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2770 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2772 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2774 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2775 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2777 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2779 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2780 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2782 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2784 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2785 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2789 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2790 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2792 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2794 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2796 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2798 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2800 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2802 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2803 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2805 (simple-format port message . args)
2806 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2807 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2808 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2809 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2810 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2811 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2812 Does not add a trailing newline."
2814 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2816 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2817 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2819 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2820 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2822 ** Deprecated: list*
2824 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2826 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2828 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2829 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2831 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2832 is returned as result.
2834 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2836 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2838 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2840 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2841 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2844 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2846 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2848 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2849 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2851 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2853 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2855 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2857 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2859 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2861 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2863 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2865 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2866 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2867 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2869 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2872 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2874 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2875 the readability of argument checking.
2877 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2879 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2881 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2883 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2884 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2885 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2886 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2887 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2888 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2889 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2891 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2893 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2895 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2896 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2898 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2900 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2901 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2904 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2906 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2907 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2908 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2910 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2911 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2912 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2914 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2915 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2916 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2917 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2918 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2919 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2920 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2922 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2923 scm_end_input (object);
2924 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2925 ptob->flush (object);
2927 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2928 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2931 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2933 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2935 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2936 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2937 removed in a future version.
2939 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2941 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2942 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2943 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2944 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2946 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2947 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2949 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2952 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2954 in your configure.in.
2956 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2961 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2967 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2969 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2973 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2974 (define make-message string-append)
2976 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2978 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2982 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2987 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2991 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2993 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2994 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2996 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2998 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2999 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3000 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3001 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3002 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3003 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3005 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3006 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3007 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3009 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3010 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3011 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3014 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3015 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3016 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3017 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3018 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3020 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3021 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3022 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3023 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3024 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3025 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3026 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3028 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3030 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3031 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3032 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3034 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3035 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3036 KEY in the calling thread.
3038 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3039 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3040 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3041 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3042 associated with the key.
3044 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3046 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3047 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3049 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3051 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3052 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3053 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3055 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3057 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3058 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3060 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3062 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3064 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3065 returned is undefined.
3067 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3068 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3069 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3071 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3072 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3073 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3075 ** New C level GC hooks
3077 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3079 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3082 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3083 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3084 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3086 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3087 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3088 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3090 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3091 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3094 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3096 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3097 allocation parameters
3099 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3100 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3101 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3105 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3106 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3107 scm_default_max_segment_size
3109 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3111 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3112 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3114 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3116 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3117 object and count on the object being protected until
3118 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3120 The functions also have better time complexity.
3122 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3123 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3124 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3125 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3126 are no longer needed.
3128 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3130 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3131 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3132 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3133 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3135 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3137 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3139 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3141 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3142 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3143 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3144 until this issue has been settled.
3146 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3148 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3150 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3153 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3155 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3157 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3158 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3159 descriptors were checked.
3161 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3162 atomically written to a pipe.
3164 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3165 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3166 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3167 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3168 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3169 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3170 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3173 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3174 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3175 is changed without calling tzset.
3177 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3179 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3180 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3181 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3183 (define write-network-long
3184 (lambda (value port)
3185 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3186 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3187 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3189 (define read-network-long
3191 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3192 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3193 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3195 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3196 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3198 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3199 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3200 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3201 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3203 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3204 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3205 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3206 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3210 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3212 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3216 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3217 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3218 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3224 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3225 for a description of available commands.
3227 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3228 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3229 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3231 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3233 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3234 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3236 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3238 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3240 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3241 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3242 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3243 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3244 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3245 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3248 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3250 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3251 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3252 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3253 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3255 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3256 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3258 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3260 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3262 ** Readline support has changed again.
3264 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3265 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3266 to activate readline is now
3268 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3271 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3273 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3274 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3275 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3278 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3279 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3280 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3283 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3284 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3285 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3286 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3287 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3288 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3290 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3291 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3293 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3295 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3296 object it receives is the same string passed to
3297 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3298 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3299 string, not the suffix.
3301 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3302 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3303 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3305 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3307 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3308 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3309 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3310 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3313 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3315 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3317 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3318 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3319 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3320 appear from left to right.
3322 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3325 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3327 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3328 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3330 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3334 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3336 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3338 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3340 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3341 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3342 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3344 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3346 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3348 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3350 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3353 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3355 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3356 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3357 mentioning it here anyway.
3359 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3361 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3362 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3363 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3364 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3367 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3369 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3371 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3373 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3374 otherwise return #f.
3376 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3378 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3379 returned by `opendir'.
3381 ** New function: using-readline?
3383 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3385 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3387 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3388 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3390 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3392 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3394 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3395 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3396 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3398 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3400 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3401 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3403 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3405 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3406 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3407 documentation slots are not yet used.
3409 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3411 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3412 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3413 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3418 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3419 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3420 (string-append x y))
3422 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3423 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3425 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3426 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3427 be made in a clean way.]
3429 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3431 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3433 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3435 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3436 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3438 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3440 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3442 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3444 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3446 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3447 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3448 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3449 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3452 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3454 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3456 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3458 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3460 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3461 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3463 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3465 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3467 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3469 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3471 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3472 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3473 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3474 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3475 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3476 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3478 This should not make any difference for most users.
3480 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3482 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3483 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3485 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3487 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3488 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3489 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3490 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3491 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3493 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3495 It is now replaced by:
3497 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3499 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3500 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3502 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3504 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3505 This might change when we get the new module system.
3507 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3511 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3513 * Changes to mailing lists
3515 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3517 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3520 * Changes to the distribution
3522 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3524 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3525 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3526 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3527 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3528 you explicitly specify it.
3530 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3531 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3532 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3533 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3534 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3537 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3538 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3539 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3540 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3542 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3543 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3544 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3547 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3549 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3552 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3554 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3556 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3557 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3558 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3559 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3561 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3562 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3565 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3567 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3568 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3569 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3570 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3571 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3572 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3573 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3574 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3586 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3587 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3588 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3589 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3590 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3595 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3596 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3604 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3609 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3610 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3613 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3614 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3615 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3616 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3618 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3620 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3622 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3623 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3625 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3627 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3629 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3630 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3632 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3635 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3637 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3639 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3641 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3643 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3645 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3647 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3648 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3649 when the hook was created.
3651 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3652 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3653 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3654 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3655 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3656 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3657 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3658 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3659 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3661 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3662 the dlopen family of functions.
3664 ** New function `provided?'
3666 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3667 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3668 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3669 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3671 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3673 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3674 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3675 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3676 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3679 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3680 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3681 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3682 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3684 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3685 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3686 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3689 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3690 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3691 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3692 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3693 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3694 but with the flag set.
3696 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3698 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3699 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3701 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3702 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3703 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3704 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3705 available Scheme format implementations.
3707 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3708 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3709 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3710 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3711 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3712 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3713 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3714 output is to the current error port if available by the
3715 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3718 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3719 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3720 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3721 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3722 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3723 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3724 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3725 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3727 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3728 be executed at a time.
3731 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3733 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3734 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3735 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3737 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3738 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3739 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3740 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3741 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3742 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3743 general form of a directive is:
3745 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3747 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3749 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3751 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3752 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3753 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3756 Any (print as `display' does).
3760 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3764 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3768 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3774 print number sign always.
3777 print comma separated.
3779 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3785 print number sign always.
3788 print comma separated.
3790 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3796 print number sign always.
3799 print comma separated.
3801 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3807 print number sign always.
3810 print comma separated.
3812 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3817 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3821 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3824 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3827 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3830 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3835 prints `y' and `ies'.
3838 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3841 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3846 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3850 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3853 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3854 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3856 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3859 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3860 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3862 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3865 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3867 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3869 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3872 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3874 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3876 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3879 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3882 The sign appears before the padding.
3890 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3892 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3897 print N page separators.
3907 newline is ignored, white space left.
3910 newline is left, white space ignored.
3915 relative tabulation.
3921 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3923 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3926 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3928 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3931 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3934 converts by `string-upcase'.
3937 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3939 jumps N arguments forward.
3942 jumps 1 argument backward.
3945 jumps N arguments backward.
3948 jumps to the 0th argument.
3951 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3953 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3954 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3956 take argument from N.
3959 true test conditional.
3962 if-else-then conditional.
3968 default clause follows.
3971 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3973 at most N iterations.
3976 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3979 args from the rest of arguments.
3982 args from the rest args (lists).
3993 aborts if N <= M <= K
3995 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3998 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4001 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4007 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4009 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4011 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4012 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4013 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4014 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4015 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4016 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4020 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4024 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4030 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4033 Print a `#\space' character
4035 print N `#\space' characters.
4038 Print a `#\tab' character
4040 print N `#\tab' characters.
4043 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4044 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4045 must be a positive decimal number.
4048 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4049 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4050 be processed by `read'.
4053 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4054 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4055 be processed by `read'.
4058 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4061 prints format version.
4064 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4065 and format it accordingly.
4067 *** Configuration Variables
4069 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4070 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4071 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4072 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4075 format:symbol-case-conv
4076 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4077 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4078 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4079 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4080 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4082 format:iobj-case-conv
4083 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4084 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4087 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4090 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4096 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4097 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4098 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4099 `format' padding style.
4102 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4103 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4104 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4105 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4109 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4110 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4111 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4114 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4115 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4116 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4117 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4118 parameters or modifiers)).
4121 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4123 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4125 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4126 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4128 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4129 string-downcase! functions.
4131 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4132 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4134 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4137 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4140 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4141 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4143 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4145 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4146 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4148 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4149 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4150 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4151 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4152 would if STRING were input.
4154 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4156 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4157 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4158 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4159 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4162 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4164 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4165 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4168 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4170 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4171 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4173 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4174 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4176 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4177 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4178 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4179 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4181 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4182 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4184 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4185 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4186 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4188 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4189 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4191 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4192 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4193 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4194 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4195 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4197 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4198 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4199 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4200 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4201 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4202 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4204 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4205 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4206 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4209 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4210 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4211 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4212 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4213 the following grammar:
4214 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4215 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4216 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4217 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4218 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4219 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4220 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4221 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4222 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4223 last option in its combination)
4225 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4226 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4227 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4228 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4230 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4231 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4232 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4234 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4235 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4236 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4238 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4239 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4240 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4241 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4242 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4243 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4244 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4245 ordinary argument strings.
4247 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4248 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4249 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4250 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4252 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4253 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4255 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4256 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4257 - a required option is omitted
4258 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4259 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4260 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4261 - an option predicate fails
4266 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4269 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4270 (verbose (required? #f)
4273 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4274 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4275 (predicate ,string?))))
4277 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4278 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4280 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4281 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4282 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4283 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4286 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4288 It will be removed in a few releases.
4290 ** New syntax: lambda*
4291 ** New syntax: define*
4292 ** New syntax: define*-public
4293 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4294 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4295 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4297 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4298 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4299 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4300 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4301 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4303 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4304 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4305 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4307 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4309 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4310 and examples for `lambda*':
4313 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4315 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4316 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4317 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4318 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4319 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4320 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4321 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4322 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4324 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4326 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4327 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4328 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4329 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4331 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4332 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4333 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4334 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4335 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4336 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4337 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4338 and until the procedure is called.
4340 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4342 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4343 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4344 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4345 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4346 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4347 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4348 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4349 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4350 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4351 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4353 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4354 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4355 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4356 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4359 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4361 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4362 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4363 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4364 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4366 ** New syntax: and-let*
4367 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4369 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4370 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4371 (<variable> <expression>)
4374 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4375 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4376 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4379 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4380 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4381 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4382 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4383 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4384 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4385 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4387 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4388 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4389 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4390 shadow earlier bindings.
4392 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4394 ** New sorting functions
4396 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4397 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4398 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4399 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4401 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4402 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4405 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4406 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4407 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4409 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4410 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4411 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4412 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4414 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4415 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4416 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4417 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4418 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4421 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4422 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4423 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4424 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4425 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4426 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4428 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4429 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4430 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4432 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4433 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4434 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4437 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4438 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4439 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4441 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4442 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4444 ** New built-in random number support
4446 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4447 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4448 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4449 returned have a uniform distribution.
4451 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4452 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4453 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4454 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4455 effect of the `random' operation.
4457 *** New variable: *random-state*
4458 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4459 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4460 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4461 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4462 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4465 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4466 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4467 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4468 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4469 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4471 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4472 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4473 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4474 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4475 initialized using SEED.
4477 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4478 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4479 range between 0 and 1.
4481 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4482 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4483 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4484 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4485 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4486 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4487 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4489 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4490 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4491 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4492 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4493 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4494 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4496 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4497 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4498 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4499 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4501 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4502 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4503 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4504 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4506 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4507 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4508 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4510 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4512 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4515 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4516 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4519 ** New function: make-guardian
4520 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4521 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4522 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4523 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4524 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4526 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4527 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4528 one object if at all.
4530 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4531 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4532 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4534 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4535 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4536 read again in last-in first-out order.
4538 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4539 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4541 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4543 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4544 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4545 file position is used.
4547 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4548 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4549 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4551 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4552 redefined using seek.
4554 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4555 size is not supplied.
4557 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4558 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4560 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4561 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4563 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4565 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4566 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4567 and returns the contents as a single string.
4569 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4570 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4571 lists in serial order.
4573 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4574 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4575 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4577 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4578 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4579 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4580 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4582 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4583 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4584 and #f if an error occured.
4586 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4588 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4589 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4590 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4591 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4593 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4595 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4598 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4600 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4603 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4607 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4608 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4610 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4611 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4615 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4617 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4619 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4620 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4622 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4624 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4625 might change when we get the new module system.
4627 ** The smob interface
4629 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4630 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4632 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4634 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4638 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4639 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4640 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4641 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4642 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4643 will be freed by the default free function.
4645 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4646 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4647 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4648 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4650 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4651 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4652 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4653 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4655 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4657 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4658 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4662 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4663 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4664 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4666 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4667 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4668 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4669 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4671 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4672 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4673 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4675 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4676 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4677 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4678 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4680 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4681 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4682 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4684 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4688 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4690 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4691 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4692 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4694 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4695 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4696 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4698 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4699 a string port's buffer.
4701 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4702 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4703 function pointers which together define the current random number
4704 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4705 number library functions.
4707 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4710 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4711 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4714 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4715 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4717 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4718 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4720 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4721 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4724 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4725 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4726 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4727 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4729 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4730 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4731 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4732 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4733 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4734 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4735 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4737 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4738 by libguile and the application.
4740 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4741 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4742 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4743 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4745 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4746 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4748 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4749 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4750 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4752 ** Random number library functions
4753 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4754 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4755 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4757 The default random state is stored in:
4759 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4760 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4761 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4766 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4768 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4769 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4770 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4771 isn't a random state.
4773 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4774 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4776 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4777 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4778 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4779 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4781 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4782 Return 32 random bits.
4784 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4785 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4787 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4788 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4790 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4791 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4793 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4794 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4796 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4797 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4798 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4802 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4804 * Changes to the distribution
4806 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4807 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4808 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4811 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4812 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4813 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4815 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4816 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4817 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4818 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4821 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4822 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4823 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4825 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4827 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4829 *** Function: batch-mode?
4831 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4834 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4836 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4837 case has not been implemented.
4839 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4840 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4841 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4844 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4845 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4847 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4849 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4851 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4853 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4854 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4857 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4858 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4859 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4860 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4863 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4865 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4866 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4867 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4868 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4869 find those libraries.
4871 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4872 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4875 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4877 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4878 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4879 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4880 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4882 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4883 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4884 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4888 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4890 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4891 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4892 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4895 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4896 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4897 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4898 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4900 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4901 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4904 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4905 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4906 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4907 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4908 compiler where to find the libraries.
4910 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4911 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4912 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4914 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4915 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4916 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4917 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4918 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4922 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4924 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4925 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4926 internationalization support.
4928 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4929 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4930 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4931 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4932 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4934 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4935 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4936 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4937 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4938 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4940 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4941 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4942 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4943 any GNU mirror site.
4945 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4947 ** New function: add-history STRING
4948 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4949 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4950 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4952 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4954 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4955 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4956 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4959 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4960 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4961 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4963 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4965 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4968 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4969 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4972 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4973 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4974 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4975 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4976 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4977 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4979 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4980 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4981 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4982 of the form mentioned above.
4984 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4985 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4986 returned in the special `rest' list.
4988 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4989 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4991 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4993 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4995 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4997 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4998 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4999 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5000 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5001 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5002 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5003 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5004 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5007 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5009 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5011 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5012 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5015 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5016 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5017 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5021 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5022 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5023 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5024 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5025 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5026 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5027 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5028 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5031 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5033 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5034 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5035 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5037 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5039 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5040 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5042 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5043 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5044 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5046 Why do we have this function?
5047 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5048 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5049 primitive, and display it differently, and
5050 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5051 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5054 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5055 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5058 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5059 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5060 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5061 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5063 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5064 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5067 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5068 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5070 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5072 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5073 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5074 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5075 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5076 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5077 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5078 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5081 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5083 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5084 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5086 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5087 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5088 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5089 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5090 properly continue the print chain.
5092 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5093 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5094 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5095 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5096 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5097 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5098 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5099 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5101 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5102 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5103 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5104 safest to not check for these pairs.
5106 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5107 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5108 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5109 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5111 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5113 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5114 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5116 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5118 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5120 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5121 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5122 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5124 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5125 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5126 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5128 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5129 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5130 the following functions and macros:
5132 Function: make-fluid
5134 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5135 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5136 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5137 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5138 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5140 Function: fluid? OBJ
5142 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5144 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5145 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5147 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5148 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5150 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5152 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5153 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5154 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5155 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5156 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5157 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5158 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5160 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5162 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5163 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5164 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5165 should evaluate to a fluid.
5167 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5169 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5170 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5171 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5172 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5173 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5175 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5178 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5180 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5182 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5184 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5187 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5188 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5189 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5190 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5191 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5194 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5195 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5196 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5198 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5199 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5200 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5202 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5203 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5204 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5205 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5207 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5208 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5209 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5210 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5212 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5213 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5214 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5215 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5217 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5218 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5219 their revealed counts set to zero.
5221 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5222 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5224 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5225 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5227 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5228 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5230 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5231 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5232 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5234 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5235 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5236 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5238 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5239 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5240 default environment inherited by child processes.
5242 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5243 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5244 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5246 The return value is unspecified.
5248 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5249 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5250 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5251 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5252 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5254 The return value is unspecified.
5256 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5257 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5265 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5266 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5269 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5272 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5273 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5274 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5276 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5277 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5278 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5279 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5282 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5283 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5285 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5286 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5287 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5288 the `environ' procedure.
5290 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5291 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5294 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5295 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5297 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5298 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5299 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5300 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5302 *** procedure: times
5303 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5304 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5305 return a selected component:
5308 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5312 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5315 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5319 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5320 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5324 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5325 terminated child processes.
5327 ** Removed: list-length
5328 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5329 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5331 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5333 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5335 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5337 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5338 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5339 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5340 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5342 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5343 extra complexity it introduces.
5345 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5346 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5348 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5349 variable to any non-empty value.
5351 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5352 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5354 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5356 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5357 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5359 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5361 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5362 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5364 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5366 ** vector handling routines
5368 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5369 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5370 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5371 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5372 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5374 ** pair and list routines
5376 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5379 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5381 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5384 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5386 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5388 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5389 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5390 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5391 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5392 site-specific initialization code.
5394 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5395 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5396 initialization processes.
5398 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5399 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5400 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5401 initialized properly.
5403 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5404 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5405 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5407 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5408 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5409 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5410 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5411 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5413 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5415 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5416 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5417 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5418 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5419 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5421 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5422 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5423 which look like this:
5426 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5428 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5429 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5432 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5433 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5436 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5438 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5439 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5440 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5442 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5443 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5444 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5445 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5446 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5448 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5449 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5451 int (*free) (SCM port);
5452 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5453 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5454 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5458 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5459 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5460 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5462 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5465 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5466 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5467 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5469 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5470 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5471 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5474 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5478 struct timeval *timeout);
5480 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5481 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5482 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5483 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5484 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5485 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5487 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5488 scm_catch_body_t body,
5490 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5493 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5494 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5495 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5496 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5497 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5498 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5500 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5502 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5505 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5506 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5507 spawning threads from application C code.
5509 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5510 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5511 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5512 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5513 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5514 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5516 ** Removed functions:
5518 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5519 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5521 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5523 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5524 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5526 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5528 ** mbstrings are now removed
5530 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5531 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5533 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5535 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5536 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5537 their new names and arguments:
5539 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5540 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5541 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5542 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5545 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5547 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5549 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5552 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5554 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5555 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5556 pass a #f arg to catch.
5558 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5560 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5561 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5564 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5565 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5566 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5567 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5568 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5569 reclaim its storage.
5571 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5572 worrying that some other function you call will call
5573 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5574 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5575 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5576 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5579 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5581 * Changes to the distribution
5583 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5584 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5587 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5588 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5590 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5591 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5593 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5595 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5596 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5597 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5599 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5601 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5602 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5603 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5604 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5605 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5606 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5608 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5609 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5610 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5613 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5614 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5615 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5616 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5618 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5619 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5620 libraries to your link command:
5622 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5623 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5624 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5625 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5627 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5628 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5629 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5631 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5633 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5634 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5637 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5639 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5640 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5641 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5642 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5643 searched is system dependent.
5645 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5647 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5649 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5651 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5652 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5654 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5656 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5657 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5658 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5659 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5660 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5663 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5665 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5666 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5667 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5668 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5669 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5671 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5673 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5674 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5676 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5678 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5679 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5680 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5683 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5685 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5686 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5687 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5688 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5690 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5691 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5693 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5695 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5696 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5698 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5700 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5701 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5709 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5711 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5712 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5713 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5714 a more informative way.
5716 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5717 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5718 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5719 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5720 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5721 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5723 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5724 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5727 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5728 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5729 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5732 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5733 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5734 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5735 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5736 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5737 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5739 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5740 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5741 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5742 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5745 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5746 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5747 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5748 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5749 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5750 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5752 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5753 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5754 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5755 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5756 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5758 *** regexp functions
5760 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5761 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5762 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5764 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5765 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5766 with SCSH regular expressions.
5768 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5769 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5770 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5771 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5773 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5774 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5775 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5776 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5778 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5779 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5780 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5781 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5782 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5783 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5785 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5786 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5787 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5788 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5789 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5791 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5793 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5794 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5795 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5796 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5798 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5799 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5800 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5802 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5803 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5805 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5808 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5809 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5810 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5812 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5813 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5814 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5816 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5817 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5818 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5819 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5820 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5823 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5825 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5826 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5827 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5828 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5829 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5830 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5832 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5833 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5834 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5836 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5837 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5840 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5841 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5843 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5844 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5845 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5846 may be one of the following arguments:
5848 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5850 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5852 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5853 the regexp match is written.
5855 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5856 following the regexp match is written.
5858 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5859 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5862 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5863 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5864 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5865 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5866 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5867 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5869 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5872 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5873 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5874 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5875 written out to PORT.
5877 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5878 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5879 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5880 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5881 will return after processing a single match.
5883 *** Match Structures
5885 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5886 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5887 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5888 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5889 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5890 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5893 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5894 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5895 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5896 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5897 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5899 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5900 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5901 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5903 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5904 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5905 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5906 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5907 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5909 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5910 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5912 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5913 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5915 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5916 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5918 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5919 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5921 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5922 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5923 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5924 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5926 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5927 Return the original TARGET string.
5929 *** Backslash Escapes
5931 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5932 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5933 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5934 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5935 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5936 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5938 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5939 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5940 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5941 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5942 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5943 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5944 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5945 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5947 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5948 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5949 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5950 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5951 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5952 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5953 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5955 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5956 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5957 return the resulting string.
5959 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5960 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5961 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5962 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5963 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5964 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5965 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5966 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5967 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5968 translated to the single character `*'.
5970 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5971 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5972 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5973 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5974 consecutive backslashes:
5976 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5978 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5979 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5980 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5982 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5983 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5984 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5985 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5986 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5987 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5989 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5991 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5992 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5993 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5994 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5995 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5996 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5997 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5998 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5999 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6000 cumbersome escape syntax.
6002 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6004 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6006 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6008 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6011 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6013 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6015 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6018 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6019 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6020 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6021 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6022 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6024 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6025 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6026 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6027 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6028 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6029 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6030 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6033 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6034 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6035 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6038 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6039 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6041 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6042 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6043 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6044 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6045 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6046 installed, you can say:
6048 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6051 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6053 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6054 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6055 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6056 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6057 new dynamic roots and threads.
6060 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6062 * Changes to the distribution.
6064 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6066 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6067 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6068 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6069 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6070 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6071 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6072 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6073 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6075 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6078 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6079 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6084 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6086 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6087 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6089 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6090 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6091 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6092 the (command-line) function.
6093 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6094 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6095 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6097 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6098 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6099 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6100 command line arguments
6101 -ds do -s script at this point
6102 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6103 -h, --help display this help and exit
6104 -v, --version display version information and exit
6105 \ read arguments from following script lines
6107 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6108 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6110 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6113 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6117 (main (command-line))
6119 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6121 ekko a speckled gecko
6123 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6124 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6125 following list of command-line arguments:
6127 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6129 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6130 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6131 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6132 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6133 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6135 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6137 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6139 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6140 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6143 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6144 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6145 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6146 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6148 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6149 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6150 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6151 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6153 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6157 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6161 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6163 ekko a speckled gecko
6165 Unix expands this into
6167 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6169 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6170 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6172 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6174 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6175 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6177 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6178 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6179 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6180 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6181 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6182 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6183 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6184 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6185 it only terminates the argument list.)
6186 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6187 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6188 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6189 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6190 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6191 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6192 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6193 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6195 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6197 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6198 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6199 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6200 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6201 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6203 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6204 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6205 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6207 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6209 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6210 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6211 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6212 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6215 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6216 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6217 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6219 * Changes to Scheme functions
6221 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6222 and disabled by default.
6224 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6225 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6226 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6227 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6229 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6231 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6233 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6234 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6236 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6237 (read-set! keywords #f)
6239 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6240 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6241 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6244 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6245 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6246 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6249 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6250 support for Scheme functions.
6252 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6253 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6254 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6255 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6258 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6259 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6260 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6263 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6264 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6265 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6268 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6269 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6270 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6271 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6272 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6273 display the result as a prompt.
6274 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6276 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6277 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6278 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6281 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6282 procedure of zero arguments.
6284 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6285 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6286 argument is bound in the current module.
6288 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6289 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6290 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6291 public bindings into the current module.
6293 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6294 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6296 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6297 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6299 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6300 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6302 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6303 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6305 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6306 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6308 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6309 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6310 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6311 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6312 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6314 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6315 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6316 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6317 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6319 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6322 ** Changes to I/O functions
6324 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6325 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6326 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6328 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6329 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6330 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6332 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6333 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6335 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6336 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6337 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6338 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6340 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6342 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6343 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6345 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6346 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6347 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6348 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6349 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6352 'trim omit delimiter from result
6353 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6354 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6355 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6357 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6359 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6360 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6362 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6363 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6364 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6365 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6366 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6368 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6369 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6370 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6372 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6373 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6374 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6375 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6377 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6378 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6380 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6381 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6383 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6385 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6386 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6387 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6388 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6389 a delimiting character.
6390 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6392 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6393 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6394 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6395 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6396 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6397 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6399 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6400 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6402 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6403 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6404 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6406 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6407 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6408 the array to read and write.
6410 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6411 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6414 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6416 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6419 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6420 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6421 Values for COMMAND are:
6423 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6424 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6425 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6426 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6427 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6428 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6429 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6430 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6432 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6434 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6435 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6436 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6437 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6438 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6439 corresponding return set will be the same.
6441 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6444 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6445 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6446 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6447 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6448 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6449 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6450 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6451 special file being created.
6453 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6454 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6456 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6457 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6458 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6459 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6460 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6461 and originating address.
6463 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6464 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6465 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6467 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6470 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6471 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6474 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6475 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6476 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6477 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6478 this function returns #f.
6480 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6481 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6482 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6485 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6486 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6487 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6490 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6491 a valid STATUS value.
6493 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6495 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6496 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6498 Component Accessor Setter
6499 ========================= ============ ============
6500 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6501 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6502 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6503 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6504 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6505 year tm:year set-tm:year
6506 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6507 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6508 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6509 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6510 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6512 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6513 describing the host system:
6516 ============================================== ================
6517 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6518 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6519 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6520 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6521 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6523 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6524 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6525 system's user database:
6528 ====================== =================
6529 user name passwd:name
6530 user password passwd:passwd
6533 real name passwd:gecos
6534 home directory passwd:dir
6535 shell program passwd:shell
6537 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6538 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6539 system's group database:
6542 ======================= ============
6543 group name group:name
6544 group password group:passwd
6546 group members group:mem
6548 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6549 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6553 ========================= ===============
6554 official name of host hostent:name
6555 alias list hostent:aliases
6556 host address type hostent:addrtype
6557 length of address hostent:length
6558 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6560 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6561 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6565 ========================= ===============
6566 official name of net netent:name
6567 alias list netent:aliases
6568 net number type netent:addrtype
6569 net number netent:net
6571 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6572 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6576 ========================= ===============
6577 official protocol name protoent:name
6578 alias list protoent:aliases
6579 protocol number protoent:proto
6581 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6582 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6586 ========================= ===============
6587 official service name servent:name
6588 alias list servent:aliases
6589 port number servent:port
6590 protocol to use servent:proto
6592 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6593 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6596 ======================================== ===============
6597 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6598 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6599 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6600 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6602 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6603 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6604 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6606 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6607 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6609 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6610 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6612 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6613 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6615 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6617 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6619 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6620 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6621 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6623 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6624 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6625 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6626 return the remaining characters as a string.
6628 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6629 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6630 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6632 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6634 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6636 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6639 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6642 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6643 and returns the array
6645 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6646 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6647 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6649 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6651 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6652 symbol's value from C code:
6654 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6655 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6656 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6657 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6659 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6660 without assigning them a value.
6662 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6663 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6664 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6666 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6667 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6668 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6670 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6671 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6673 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6674 doesn't actually care about that.
6676 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6677 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6678 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6680 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6681 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6682 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6683 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6684 which we have just created and initialized.
6686 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6687 should one occur. We call it like this:
6688 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6690 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6691 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6692 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6693 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6694 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6695 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6698 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6699 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6700 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6701 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6702 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6703 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6704 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6707 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6708 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6709 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6710 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6711 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6714 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6715 scm_internal_catch, except:
6717 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6718 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6719 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6720 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6723 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6724 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6725 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6727 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6728 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6729 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6730 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6733 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6734 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6735 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6737 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6738 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6739 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6740 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6741 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6743 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6744 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6745 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6747 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6748 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6749 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6751 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6752 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6754 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6755 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6756 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6759 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6760 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6761 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6762 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6763 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6764 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6765 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6768 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6769 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6771 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6772 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6773 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6774 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6775 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6778 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6779 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6781 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6782 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6785 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6786 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6788 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6791 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6792 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6793 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6794 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6795 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6796 given the following arguments:
6798 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6800 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6802 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6804 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6807 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6808 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6809 command-line arguments.
6811 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6812 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6813 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6814 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6815 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6816 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6819 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6822 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6823 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6825 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6826 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6828 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6829 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6830 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6831 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6833 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6834 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6836 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6837 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6838 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6839 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6841 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6842 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6844 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6845 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6847 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6849 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6850 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6851 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6854 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6855 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6857 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6858 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6863 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6866 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6868 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6869 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6870 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6871 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6873 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6875 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6877 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6878 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6879 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6880 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6881 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6882 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6883 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6884 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6885 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6886 for more information.
6888 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6889 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6891 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6892 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6893 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6894 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6895 following two lines at the top of the file:
6897 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6900 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6901 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6902 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6904 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6906 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6908 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6911 (display (car args))
6912 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6914 (loop (cdr args)))))
6917 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6918 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6919 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6920 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6921 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6922 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6926 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6929 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6932 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6934 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6935 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6936 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6937 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6938 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6941 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6942 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6943 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6944 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6945 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6948 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6951 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6952 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6953 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6956 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6957 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6958 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6960 to see a backtrace, and
6961 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6962 to see them by default.
6966 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6968 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6970 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6971 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6974 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6975 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6976 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6977 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6980 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6981 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6982 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6983 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6984 functions which inspired them.
6986 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6987 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6991 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6993 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6995 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6996 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6999 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7000 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7001 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7003 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7004 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7005 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7006 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7007 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7009 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7011 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7012 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7013 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7016 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7019 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7021 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7022 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7023 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7024 above should serve their purposes.
7026 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7027 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7028 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7029 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7031 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7034 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7035 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7036 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7037 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7039 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7040 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7041 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7042 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7044 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7045 for the `read' function.
7048 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7049 to that of `integer?'.
7051 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7052 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7054 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7055 it simply returns the object's property list.
7057 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7058 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7059 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7060 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7062 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7064 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7067 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7069 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7070 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7072 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7074 void (*main_func) (),
7077 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7078 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7079 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7080 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7081 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7083 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7084 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7085 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7086 know which arguments have been processed.
7088 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7089 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7090 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7091 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7092 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7094 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7095 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7096 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7097 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7098 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7099 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7100 people from making that mistake.
7102 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7103 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7105 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7107 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7111 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7114 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7115 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7116 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7117 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7120 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7121 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7122 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7123 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7126 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7127 have been added to the Guile library.
7129 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7130 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7131 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7134 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7135 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7136 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7138 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7139 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7140 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7141 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7142 argument from the list.
7145 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7148 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7149 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7151 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7152 to a Scheme port object.
7154 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7155 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7160 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7162 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7163 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7164 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7165 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7166 code as a special datatype.
7168 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7169 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7170 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7171 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7172 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7175 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7176 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7177 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7178 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7179 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7181 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7184 Copyright information:
7186 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7188 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7189 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7190 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7191 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7193 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7194 of this document, or of portions of it,
7195 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7196 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7201 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"