1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 (During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the latest
9 prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.)
11 Changes in 1.9.7 (since the 1.9.6 prerelease):
13 ** New primitive `getsid'
15 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
18 Changes in 1.9.6 (since the 1.9.5 prerelease):
20 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
22 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
23 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
24 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
25 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
27 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
28 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
29 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
30 code, and simplifying debugging.
32 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
33 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
35 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
36 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
37 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
38 both of these situations.
40 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
41 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
42 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
43 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
47 The derelict Guile maintainers finally got around to merging Daniel
48 Kraft's excellent Emacs Lisp compiler. You can now switch to Elisp at
49 the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel, and all bugs to
52 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
54 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
55 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
56 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
57 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
59 ** Some VM metadata removed
61 It used to be that the standard virtual machine counted the number of
62 instructions it executed. This capability has been removed, as it was
63 not very useful, and had some overhead. Also it used to try to record
64 the time spent in the VM, but these calculations were borked, so we
67 ** Inline memq/memv of a key in a constant list
69 The impoverished Guile inliner is slightly less lame now that it does
70 `(memv k '(foo))' => `(eq? k 'foo)'.
72 ** Rename "else" fields of <conditional> and <lambda-case>
74 Having a field named "else" just didn't sit right with "cond", and
75 everything else. So now Tree-IL's <conditional> has "consequent" and
76 "alternate", and <lambda-case> has "alternate".
78 ** Allow interrupts in tail loops
80 Tail-recursive loops that compile to tight, procedure-less jumps
81 previously were uninterruptible. Now the VM handle interrupts whenever
84 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
86 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
87 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
88 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
89 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
93 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
96 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
97 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
98 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
100 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
102 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
103 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
105 ** Applicable struct support
107 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
108 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
109 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
110 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
111 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
112 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
113 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
114 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
116 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
118 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
119 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
120 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
121 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
123 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
124 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
125 implement method combinations.
127 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
129 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
130 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
131 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
134 ** No more `local-eval'
136 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
137 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
138 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
139 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
142 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
143 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
148 *** Remove old evaluator closures
150 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
151 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
152 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
153 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
156 *** Simplify representation of primitive procedures
158 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
159 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
160 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
161 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
162 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
163 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
165 *** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
167 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
168 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
170 *** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
172 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
173 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
174 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
175 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
176 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
181 It used to be that Guile had debugging frames on the C stack and on the
182 VM stack. Now Guile's procedures only run on the VM stack, simplifying
183 much of the C API. See the ChangeLog for details. The Scheme API has not
184 been changed significantly.
186 ** New procedure, `define!'
188 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
189 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
190 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
191 less verbose than `module-define!'.
193 ** eqv? not a generic
195 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
196 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
197 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
198 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
200 ** Deprecate trampolines
202 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
203 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
204 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
205 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
206 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
208 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
210 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
213 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
215 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
216 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
217 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
218 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
220 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
222 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
223 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
224 available to C. Have fun!
226 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
228 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
232 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
234 * New modules (see the manual for details)
236 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
237 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
238 ** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API
239 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
240 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
242 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
244 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
246 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
247 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
249 ** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment.
251 If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set
252 its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000
253 words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit.
255 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
256 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
258 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
259 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
260 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
263 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
265 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
266 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
267 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
269 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
271 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
274 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
276 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
277 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
278 include `/path/to/lib'.
280 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
282 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
285 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
287 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
289 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
290 not apply to the compiler.
292 ** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled
295 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
296 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
297 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
299 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
300 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
301 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
304 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
305 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
306 will be created if needed.
308 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
309 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
311 Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will
312 sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't.
314 For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
315 not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
316 something here about module-transformer called for compile.
318 ** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
320 As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
321 its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
324 There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
325 not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
326 autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
328 Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
329 command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
330 the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
332 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
334 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
335 in the next prerelease.
337 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
339 ** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled
342 This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0.
344 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
345 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
346 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments',
348 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
349 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
350 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
351 procedures' docstrings for more information.
353 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
354 combining arity and formals. For example:
356 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
357 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
359 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
362 ** Deprecated: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
364 These procedures will not work with syncase expansion, and indeed are
365 not used in the normal course of Guile. They are still used by the old
366 Emacs Lisp support, however.
368 ** New language: ECMAScript
370 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
371 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
372 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
373 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
375 ** New language: Brainfuck
377 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
378 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
379 languages. See the manual for details, or
380 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
381 Brainfuck language itself.
383 ** Defmacros may now have docstrings.
385 Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from
386 `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you
387 have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros.
388 Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures.
390 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
393 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
395 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
396 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
399 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
400 (define (helper x) ...)
402 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
404 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
407 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
408 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
410 ** New function, `procedure-module'
412 While useful on its own, `procedure-module' is used by psyntax on syntax
413 transformers to determine the module in which to scope introduced
416 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
418 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still
419 missing documentation, however.
421 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
424 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
425 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
427 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
429 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
431 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
433 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
434 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
435 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
436 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
437 in response to user feedback.
439 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
441 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
442 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
445 (define (helper x) ...)
446 (define-macro (foo bar)
449 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
452 (define (helper x) ...)
453 (define-macro (foo bar)
454 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
456 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
460 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
462 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
464 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
471 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
472 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
475 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
477 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
481 (define-macro (ref x) x)
484 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
485 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
486 macros before code that uses them.
488 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
491 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
493 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
494 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
495 (double-literal 2) => 4
497 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
498 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
499 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
501 (eval-when (load compile eval)
502 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
503 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
504 (double-literal 2) => 4
506 See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more
509 ** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer
511 Need to document this one some more.
513 ** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1'
515 `macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to
516 implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove
519 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
521 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
522 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
523 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
525 ** Incompatible change to #'
527 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
528 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
529 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
530 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
532 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
534 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
537 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
538 works (with compiled procedures)
540 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
541 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
542 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
543 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
545 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
546 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
547 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
548 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
549 number of stack frames.
551 ** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
552 active in the current continuation
554 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
555 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
556 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
557 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
559 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
560 through to the expanded code
562 This should result in better backtraces.
564 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
566 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
568 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
570 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
571 default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported
574 ** All modules have names now
576 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
577 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
578 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
579 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
581 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
583 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
584 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
585 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
587 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
588 values to the expected number
590 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
591 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
592 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
594 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
595 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
596 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
597 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
599 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
600 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
601 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
603 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
606 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
608 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
610 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
611 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
612 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
613 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
614 the interpreter would proceed.
616 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
617 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
618 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
619 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
621 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
623 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
624 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
625 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
626 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
627 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
628 you to contact the Guile developers.
630 ** psyntax is now the default expander
632 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
633 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
636 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
637 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
638 code in question was memoized.
640 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
641 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
642 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
643 `x432' instead of `x'.
645 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
646 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
647 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
648 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
650 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
652 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
653 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
654 `sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
657 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
658 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
659 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
660 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
662 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
663 by nonhygienic macros.
665 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
666 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
669 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
670 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
671 (define-macro (ref x)
678 (define-syntax bind-x
680 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
681 (define-macro (ref x)
685 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
686 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
687 run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
688 its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
691 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
693 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
694 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
696 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
697 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
700 This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome
701 to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no
702 subscription required).
704 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
706 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
707 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
708 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
710 ** Compiled procedures may now have more than one arity.
712 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
713 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
714 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
715 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
717 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
719 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
720 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
721 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
722 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
724 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
726 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
727 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
729 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
731 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
732 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
735 ** Unicode characters
737 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
738 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
739 probably be introduced at some point.
743 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
744 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
745 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
747 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
748 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
749 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
750 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
754 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
756 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
758 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
759 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
760 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
761 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
762 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
765 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
766 code. This use is now discouraged.
768 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
770 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
771 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
772 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
775 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
776 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
777 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
779 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
781 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
783 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
784 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
785 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
786 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
788 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
790 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
791 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
794 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
796 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
797 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
798 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
801 ** EBCDIC support is removed
803 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
804 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
805 and was unmaintained.
807 ** Compile-time warnings: -Wunbound-variable, -Warity-mismatch.
809 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
810 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
811 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
814 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
815 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
816 `#:warnings' as above.
818 ** New macro type: syncase-macro
820 XXX Need to decide whether to document this for 2.0, probably should:
821 make-syncase-macro, make-extended-syncase-macro, macro-type,
822 syncase-macro-type, syncase-macro-binding
824 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
826 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
829 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
831 This slightly improves program startup times.
833 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
835 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
839 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
840 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
841 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
842 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
843 applicable structures, but were unusable; entities will come back in the
844 next alpha release, but with a less stupid name.
846 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
848 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
849 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
850 functions are deprecated.
852 ** Fast bit operations.
854 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
855 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
856 it's for number crunching too.
858 ** R6RS block comment support
860 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
861 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
863 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
865 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
866 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
868 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
869 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
870 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
872 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
873 ;; separate compilation phase.
874 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
876 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
878 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
879 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
880 backtrace. This has been fixed.
882 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
884 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
886 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
888 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
890 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
892 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
894 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
896 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
898 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
899 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
900 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
902 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
904 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
905 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
907 ** New readline history functions
909 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
910 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
911 History library functions.
913 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
914 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
916 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
919 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
921 * Changes to the C interface
923 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
925 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
926 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
927 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
929 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
930 code easier and less error-prone.
932 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
934 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
936 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
939 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
940 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
942 ** scm_primitive_load_path has additional argument, exception_on_error
944 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
946 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
948 ** Inline vector allocation
950 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
951 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
952 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
953 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
956 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
958 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
959 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
960 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
961 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
962 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
963 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
967 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
968 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
969 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
970 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
972 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
974 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
975 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
976 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
977 like scm_is_null_or_nil. Probably in the future we will #define
978 scm_is_null to scm_is_null_or_nil.
980 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
982 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
983 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
986 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
987 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
989 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
991 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
992 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
994 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
996 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
997 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
998 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
999 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1001 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1003 * Changes to the distribution
1005 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1007 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1008 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1011 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1013 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1014 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1016 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1018 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1019 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1020 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1023 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1025 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1026 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1028 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1030 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1031 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1033 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1035 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1036 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1037 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1038 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensionsdir
1039 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1041 ** New dependency: libgc
1043 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1045 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1047 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1048 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1052 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1056 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1057 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1058 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1061 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1063 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1065 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1069 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1070 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1071 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1072 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1073 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1074 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1075 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1076 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1077 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1078 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1079 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1081 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1083 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1084 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1085 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1088 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1091 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1093 * New features (see the manual for details)
1095 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1097 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1099 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1100 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1101 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1103 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1105 * Changes to the distribution
1107 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1109 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1110 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1112 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1114 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1115 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1120 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1121 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1122 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1123 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1124 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1125 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1126 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1127 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1128 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1129 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1130 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1131 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1132 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1133 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1135 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1136 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1137 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1138 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1139 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1142 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1144 * Infrastructure changes
1146 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1148 The new repository can be accessed using
1149 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1150 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1152 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1154 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1156 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1160 * New features (see the manual for details)
1162 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1163 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1164 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1166 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1167 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1168 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1169 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1171 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1173 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1174 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1175 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1179 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1180 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1182 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1183 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1185 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1186 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1188 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1189 lead to a stack overflow.
1191 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1192 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1193 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1194 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1195 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1196 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1197 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1198 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1199 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1200 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1201 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1202 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1203 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1204 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1205 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1206 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1209 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1213 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1214 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1215 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1216 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1217 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1218 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1219 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1220 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1221 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1222 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1223 system and library calls.
1224 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1225 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1226 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1227 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1228 uniform vectors on AIX.
1229 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1230 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1231 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1232 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1233 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1235 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1239 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1241 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1243 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1244 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1246 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1248 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1250 * Changes to the distribution
1252 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1254 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1255 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1256 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1258 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1260 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1263 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1265 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1272 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1273 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1274 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1275 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1276 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1277 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1278 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1280 * Implementation improvements
1282 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1283 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1286 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1288 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1290 ** set-program-arguments
1293 * Incompatible changes
1295 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1297 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1298 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1299 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1300 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1305 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1306 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1307 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1308 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1309 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1310 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1312 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1313 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1314 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1315 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1316 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1317 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1318 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1319 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1320 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1321 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1322 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1323 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1324 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1325 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1326 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1327 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
1330 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
1332 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
1334 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1336 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
1337 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
1338 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
1339 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
1340 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
1341 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
1349 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
1351 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
1353 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
1355 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
1357 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
1359 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
1361 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
1362 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
1363 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
1365 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
1367 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
1369 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
1370 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
1372 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
1374 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
1375 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
1377 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
1379 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
1381 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
1383 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
1385 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
1387 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
1389 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
1391 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
1393 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
1395 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
1396 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
1397 file was on a different device.
1400 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
1402 * Changes to the distribution
1404 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
1406 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
1408 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
1410 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
1412 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
1414 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
1417 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
1419 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
1420 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
1421 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
1422 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
1423 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
1424 items like the versioned share directory name
1425 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
1427 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
1428 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
1429 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
1430 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
1431 with each micro release during a stable series.
1433 ** Thread implementation has changed.
1435 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
1436 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
1437 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
1438 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
1439 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
1442 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
1443 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
1444 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
1445 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
1448 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
1449 in which case "null" threads are used.
1451 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
1452 "Blocking", and others.
1454 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
1456 This is a milder form of deprecation.
1458 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
1459 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
1460 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
1461 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
1462 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
1464 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
1465 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
1467 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
1469 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
1470 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
1472 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
1475 This SRFI is always available.
1477 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
1479 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
1480 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
1481 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
1482 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
1485 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
1487 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
1488 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
1489 parameters without currying.
1491 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
1493 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
1494 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
1496 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
1497 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
1500 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
1501 with a renaming import, for example.
1503 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
1505 The official version is good enough now.
1507 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
1509 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
1510 provided. Use 'make html'.
1512 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
1514 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
1515 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
1516 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
1517 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
1519 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
1521 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
1524 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1526 ** New command line option `-L'.
1528 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
1530 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
1532 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
1533 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
1535 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
1537 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
1538 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
1540 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
1542 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
1543 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
1546 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
1549 (define-module (demo)
1553 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
1556 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1558 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
1560 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
1561 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
1562 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
1564 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
1566 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
1567 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
1569 ** New function hashx-remove!
1571 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
1573 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
1574 barriers and dynamic states.
1576 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
1577 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
1578 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
1581 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
1582 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
1583 Barriers" in the manual.
1585 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
1586 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
1588 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
1590 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
1591 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
1592 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
1593 variable %load-path.
1595 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
1597 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
1598 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
1600 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
1601 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
1602 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
1604 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
1605 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
1607 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
1608 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
1609 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
1611 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
1612 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
1613 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
1616 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
1617 substrings and read-only strings.
1619 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
1620 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
1623 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
1625 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
1634 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
1635 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
1636 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
1638 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
1639 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
1640 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
1641 on an ANSI terminal:
1643 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
1644 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
1647 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
1649 See the manual for details.
1651 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
1653 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
1656 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
1658 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
1659 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
1660 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
1661 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
1663 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
1664 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
1665 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
1668 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
1670 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
1671 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
1682 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
1686 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
1691 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
1695 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
1699 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
1702 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
1703 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
1704 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
1705 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
1707 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
1708 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
1711 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
1714 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
1718 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
1720 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
1721 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
1722 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
1725 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
1728 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
1730 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
1733 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
1734 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
1737 (define-module (foo)
1742 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
1743 has been detected is to
1745 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
1746 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
1747 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
1750 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
1753 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
1755 to your .guile init file.
1757 ** New define-module option: :replace
1759 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
1762 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
1763 for the core binding `format'.
1765 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
1767 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
1768 a prefix to all imported bindings.
1770 (define-module (foo)
1771 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
1773 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
1776 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
1778 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
1779 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
1780 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
1782 ** New function: effective-version
1784 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1785 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1786 to the distribution" above.
1788 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
1790 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
1791 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
1793 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
1795 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
1796 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
1798 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
1800 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
1801 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
1804 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
1806 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
1808 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
1810 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
1811 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
1812 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
1815 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
1816 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
1817 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
1818 'system-async-mark'.
1820 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
1821 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
1823 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
1824 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
1825 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
1828 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
1830 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
1831 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
1834 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
1835 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1837 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
1838 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
1839 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
1840 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
1841 level for the current thread.
1843 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
1845 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
1847 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1848 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
1851 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
1853 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
1855 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
1858 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
1860 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
1863 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
1864 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
1865 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
1867 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
1868 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
1869 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
1870 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
1881 ERROR: Numerical overflow
1883 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
1886 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
1888 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
1889 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
1890 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
1901 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
1903 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
1904 them is also done exactly, of course:
1909 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
1910 for exact arguments.
1912 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
1913 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
1915 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
1917 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
1918 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
1919 equal to a floating point number. For example:
1921 (inexact->exact 1.234)
1922 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
1924 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
1926 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
1929 ** New function 'rationalize'.
1931 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
1932 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
1934 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
1937 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
1938 result when both its arguments are exact.
1940 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
1942 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
1943 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
1944 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
1946 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
1948 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
1949 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
1950 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
1952 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
1955 ** pretty-print has more options.
1957 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
1958 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
1959 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
1961 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
1963 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
1964 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
1965 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
1967 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
1969 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
1970 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
1972 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
1974 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
1975 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
1978 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
1980 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
1981 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
1982 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
1983 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
1984 without the soft port blocking.
1986 ** Deprecated: undefine
1988 There is no replacement for undefine.
1990 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
1991 have been discouraged.
1993 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
1994 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
1995 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
1998 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2000 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2002 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2003 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2004 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2005 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2008 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2009 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2010 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2012 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2014 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2015 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2016 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2017 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2018 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2019 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2021 * Changes to the C interface
2023 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2024 take a 'delete' function argument.
2026 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2027 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2029 This is an incompatible change.
2031 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2033 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2034 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2035 --disable-deprecated.
2037 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2039 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2040 Scheme values has been added.
2042 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2043 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2046 - int scm_is_* (...)
2048 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2049 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2051 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2053 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2054 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2057 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2059 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2060 scm_from_int for ints.
2062 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2063 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2064 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2066 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2068 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2069 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2070 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2073 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2075 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2077 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2079 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2080 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2081 following alternatives.
2083 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2084 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2085 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2086 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2088 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2089 do the validating for you.
2091 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2092 have been discouraged.
2094 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2095 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2098 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2100 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2101 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2104 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2106 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2109 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2112 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2114 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2115 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2117 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2118 scm_truncate_number should have.
2120 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2121 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2123 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2126 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2127 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2128 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2130 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2131 easier to use from C.
2133 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2134 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2136 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2137 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2138 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2141 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2142 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2143 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2144 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2147 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2148 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2149 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2150 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2151 and is thus quite efficient.
2153 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2155 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2156 about the character encoding.
2158 Replace according to the following table:
2160 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2161 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2162 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2163 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2164 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2165 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2166 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2167 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2168 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2170 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2171 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2173 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2175 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2176 now also available to C code.
2178 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2180 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2181 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2182 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2184 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2187 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2189 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2190 unceremoniously removed.
2192 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2193 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2194 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2196 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2197 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2198 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2199 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2200 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2201 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2204 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2206 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2207 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2208 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2209 manual for more details.
2211 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2212 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2214 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2215 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2216 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2218 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2220 Migrate according to the following table:
2222 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2223 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2224 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2225 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2226 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2227 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2228 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2230 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2231 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2232 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2233 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2234 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2235 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2236 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2238 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2240 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2241 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2243 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2244 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2245 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2246 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2248 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2250 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2251 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2252 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2254 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2255 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2257 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2258 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2259 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2260 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2262 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2264 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2265 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2266 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2267 prevent a potential memory leak:
2274 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2276 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2277 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2279 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2280 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2287 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2288 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2292 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2294 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2296 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2297 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2298 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2300 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2301 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2303 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2305 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2307 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2308 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2309 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2311 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2312 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2314 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2315 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2316 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2317 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2320 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2322 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2323 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2324 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2326 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
2328 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
2329 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
2331 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
2333 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
2334 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
2336 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
2338 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
2339 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
2340 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
2342 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
2344 You should not have used them.
2346 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
2348 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
2349 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
2351 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
2353 This macro is not intended for public use.
2355 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
2357 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
2359 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
2361 Use scm_is_real instead.
2363 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
2365 Use scm_is_complex instead.
2367 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
2369 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
2370 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
2372 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
2373 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
2375 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
2376 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
2378 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
2380 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
2383 ** New function: scm_effective_version
2385 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2386 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2387 to the distribution" above.
2389 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
2391 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
2392 arguments are now passed directly:
2394 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
2396 This is an incompatible change.
2398 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
2400 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
2401 function in the init section.
2403 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
2405 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
2407 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
2408 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
2409 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
2410 stays roughly constant.
2412 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
2413 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
2414 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
2415 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
2416 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
2419 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
2420 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
2421 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
2422 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
2424 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
2425 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
2426 objects for every type.
2429 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
2431 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
2433 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
2435 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
2436 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
2437 initializes a new cell (see below).
2439 ** New functions for memory management
2441 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
2442 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
2443 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
2444 cause aborts in long running programs.
2446 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
2447 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
2449 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
2450 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
2451 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
2452 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
2453 details and for upgrading instructions.
2455 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
2456 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
2457 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
2459 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
2461 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
2462 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
2463 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
2464 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
2465 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
2467 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
2468 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
2469 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
2471 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
2472 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
2474 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
2476 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
2477 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
2478 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
2479 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
2480 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
2482 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
2484 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
2487 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
2489 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
2491 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
2493 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
2494 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
2496 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
2498 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
2499 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
2501 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
2502 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
2504 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
2506 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
2508 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
2509 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
2510 blocking it is not well defined.
2512 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
2514 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
2515 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
2516 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
2517 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
2518 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
2519 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
2520 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
2521 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
2522 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
2523 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
2524 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2525 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
2526 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
2527 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
2528 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
2529 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
2530 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
2531 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2532 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
2533 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
2534 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
2535 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
2536 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
2537 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
2538 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
2539 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
2540 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
2541 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
2542 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
2543 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
2544 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
2546 * Changes to bundled modules
2550 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
2551 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
2552 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
2553 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
2554 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
2557 Changes since Guile 1.4:
2559 * Changes to the distribution
2561 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
2563 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
2565 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
2566 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
2567 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
2568 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
2569 indicate major changes in Guile.
2571 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
2572 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
2573 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
2574 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
2576 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
2577 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
2578 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
2579 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
2580 micro version number.
2582 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
2584 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
2586 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
2587 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
2589 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
2591 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
2592 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
2593 See INSTALL and README for more information.
2595 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
2597 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
2598 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
2599 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
2602 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
2604 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
2607 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
2609 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
2610 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
2612 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
2614 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
2615 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
2618 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
2620 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
2623 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
2626 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
2628 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
2630 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
2631 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
2632 open-output-string, get-output-string.
2634 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
2636 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
2638 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
2641 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
2643 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
2645 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
2647 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
2648 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
2649 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
2651 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
2653 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
2655 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
2656 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
2665 See README there for more info.
2667 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
2668 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
2671 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
2673 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
2675 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
2677 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
2678 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
2679 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
2681 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
2683 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
2684 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
2685 to be named `and-let*', of course.
2687 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
2688 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
2690 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
2693 (oop goops describe)
2695 (oop goops active-slot)
2696 (oop goops composite-slot)
2698 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
2699 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
2700 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
2702 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
2704 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
2705 in the default environment:
2707 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
2708 %read-line write-line
2710 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
2711 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
2713 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
2715 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
2718 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
2719 can be used for similar functionality.
2721 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
2723 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
2724 it defines two procedures:
2726 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2728 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
2729 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2730 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
2733 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2735 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
2736 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2737 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
2738 write large strings.
2740 ** New module (ice-9 match)
2742 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
2743 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
2745 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
2747 for complete documentation.
2749 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
2751 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
2752 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
2753 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
2754 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
2756 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
2757 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
2761 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
2762 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
2763 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
2766 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
2769 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
2770 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
2772 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
2773 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
2776 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
2779 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
2781 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
2783 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2785 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
2787 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
2788 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
2789 Scheme programs easier.
2791 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
2792 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
2793 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
2794 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
2795 `cond-expand' when using this option.
2798 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
2799 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
2801 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
2804 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
2806 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
2807 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
2808 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
2811 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2813 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
2815 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
2816 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
2817 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
2818 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
2819 was also ASCII, for example.
2821 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
2823 tag - no replacement.
2824 fseek - replaced by seek.
2825 list* - replaced by cons*.
2827 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
2831 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
2832 (define m (make-safe-module))
2833 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
2834 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
2835 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
2837 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
2839 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
2840 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
2841 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
2843 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
2845 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
2846 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
2847 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
2848 from the issues related to the module system.
2850 *** New function: load-extension
2852 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
2854 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
2856 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
2857 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
2858 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
2860 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
2862 This function registers a initialization function for use by
2863 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
2864 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
2865 support dynamic linking).
2867 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
2869 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
2870 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
2871 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
2872 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
2875 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
2876 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
2877 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
2878 library and initialize it explicitly.
2880 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
2881 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
2883 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
2885 (define-module (foo bar))
2887 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
2889 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
2891 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
2892 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
2894 (scheme-report-environment 5)
2895 (null-environment 5)
2896 (interaction-environment)
2902 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
2904 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
2905 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
2906 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
2907 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
2909 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
2910 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
2911 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
2912 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
2913 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
2914 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
2915 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
2916 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
2917 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
2918 one eval to the next.
2920 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
2921 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
2922 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
2923 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
2924 subforms are at the top-level as well.
2926 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
2927 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
2928 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
2929 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
2930 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
2931 used in a lexical environment.
2933 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
2934 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
2935 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
2936 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
2937 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
2938 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
2940 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
2942 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
2943 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
2944 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
2945 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
2946 new facilities: selection and renaming.
2948 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
2949 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
2950 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
2952 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
2953 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
2955 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
2956 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
2957 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2959 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2960 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
2962 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
2963 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
2964 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
2965 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
2968 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2969 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
2970 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
2971 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2973 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2974 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2975 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
2977 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2978 ;; and all four by upcasing.
2979 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
2980 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
2981 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
2983 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2985 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2986 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2987 :renamer upcase-symbol))
2989 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
2990 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
2991 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
2993 See manual for more info.
2995 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
2997 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
2998 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
2999 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3001 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3003 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3004 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3005 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3007 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3008 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3009 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3010 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3012 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3014 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3015 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3017 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3018 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3019 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3020 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3021 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3024 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3025 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3026 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3027 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3028 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3029 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3031 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3032 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3033 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3034 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3035 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3037 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3038 objects are usually permanent.
3040 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3041 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3043 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3045 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3046 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3049 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3053 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3058 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3060 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3061 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3062 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3063 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3065 ** New function `make-object-property'
3067 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3068 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3072 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3073 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3077 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3078 source properties eventually.
3080 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3082 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3083 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3084 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3086 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3087 will be removed in the next release.
3089 ** New define-module option: pure
3091 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3096 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3099 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3101 Export names NAME1 ...
3103 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3104 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3108 (define-module (foo)
3110 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3113 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3118 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3120 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3122 ** New function: port? X
3124 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3125 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3127 ** New function: file-port?
3129 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3131 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3133 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3134 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3135 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3136 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3137 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3139 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3141 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3142 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3143 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3144 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3145 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3148 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3150 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3151 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3152 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3153 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3156 ** New function: crypt password salt
3158 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3161 ** New function: chroot path
3163 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3165 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3167 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3170 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3172 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3174 ** New function: getpass prompt
3176 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3179 ** New function: flock file operation
3181 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3183 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3185 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3188 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3190 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3191 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3192 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3193 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3194 of the temporary file.
3196 ** New function: open-input-string string
3198 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3199 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3200 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3202 ** New function: open-output-string
3204 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3205 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3207 ** New function: get-output-string
3209 Return the contents of an output string port.
3211 ** New function: identity
3213 Return the argument.
3215 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3216 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3218 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3220 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3221 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3222 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3225 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3226 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3228 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3230 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3231 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3232 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3235 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3236 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3237 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3241 Use `identity' instead.
3247 ** Deprecated: return-it
3251 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3253 Use `string-length' instead.
3255 ** Deprecated: flags
3257 Use `logior' instead.
3259 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3261 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3262 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3263 port-for-each is more flexible.
3265 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3266 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3267 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3269 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3271 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3273 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3275 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3277 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3279 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3280 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3282 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3283 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3285 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3286 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3288 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3290 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3291 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3293 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3294 Use module system operations for all variables.
3296 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3298 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3301 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3303 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3304 The following bugs have been fixed:
3306 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3307 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3310 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3311 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3312 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3314 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3315 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3317 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3318 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3321 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3322 The expansion used to be like so:
3324 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3326 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
3328 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
3330 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
3331 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
3333 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
3335 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
3336 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
3337 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
3341 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
3342 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
3344 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
3349 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
3350 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
3352 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
3353 and `d', other keywords allowed.
3354 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
3356 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
3359 * Changes to the C interface
3361 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
3363 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
3364 with "_t". What a concept.
3366 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
3368 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
3370 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
3374 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
3375 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
3377 *** C Functions removed
3379 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
3380 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
3381 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
3382 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
3383 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
3384 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
3385 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
3387 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
3389 Use scm_mem2string instead.
3391 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
3393 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
3395 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
3396 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
3398 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
3400 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
3403 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
3405 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
3407 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
3409 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
3410 Evaluation" in the manual.
3412 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
3414 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
3415 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
3417 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
3419 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
3420 Constructors" in the manual.
3422 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
3424 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
3425 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
3427 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
3429 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
3431 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
3432 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
3433 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
3435 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3437 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
3439 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
3440 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
3441 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
3444 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3446 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
3448 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
3449 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
3451 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
3453 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
3454 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
3455 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
3456 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
3458 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
3459 scm_primitive_property_ref
3460 scm_primitive_property_set_x
3461 scm_primitive_property_del_x
3463 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
3464 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
3466 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
3468 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
3469 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
3470 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
3471 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
3473 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
3475 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
3476 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
3477 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
3478 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
3479 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
3480 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
3481 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
3483 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
3484 scm_remember_upto_here
3486 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
3488 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
3490 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
3491 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
3493 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
3495 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
3497 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
3499 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
3501 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
3503 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
3504 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
3505 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
3506 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
3507 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
3508 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
3510 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
3512 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3514 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
3515 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3516 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
3518 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
3520 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
3521 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3522 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
3524 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
3526 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
3527 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
3530 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
3533 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
3534 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3537 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3539 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
3541 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
3543 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3545 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
3547 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
3549 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
3550 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
3551 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
3552 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3553 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
3554 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
3555 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
3556 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3557 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
3558 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
3559 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
3560 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
3561 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
3562 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
3563 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
3565 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
3566 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
3567 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
3568 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
3569 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
3570 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
3571 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
3572 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
3573 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3574 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
3575 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
3576 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
3577 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
3578 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
3579 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
3580 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3581 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3582 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
3583 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
3584 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
3585 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
3586 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
3587 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
3588 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
3589 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
3590 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
3591 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
3592 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
3593 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
3595 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
3597 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
3599 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
3600 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
3602 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
3604 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
3606 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
3608 Use scm_string_hash instead.
3610 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
3612 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
3614 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
3616 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
3618 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
3621 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
3622 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
3624 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
3626 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
3628 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
3630 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
3632 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
3634 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
3636 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
3638 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
3641 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
3643 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
3645 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
3647 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
3648 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
3650 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
3651 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
3653 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
3655 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
3656 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
3657 scm_module_define, scm_define.
3659 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
3661 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
3663 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
3664 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
3666 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
3667 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
3668 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
3669 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
3671 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
3672 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
3673 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
3675 Use the new ones from above instead.
3677 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
3679 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
3680 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
3681 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
3683 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
3684 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
3686 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
3687 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
3690 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
3691 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
3693 Use the new functions instead.
3695 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
3698 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
3700 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
3702 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
3705 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
3707 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
3710 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
3712 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
3715 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
3716 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
3717 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
3719 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
3721 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
3722 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
3724 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
3725 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
3726 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
3727 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
3730 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
3732 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
3733 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
3734 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
3735 inexact for an exact.
3737 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
3738 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
3739 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
3742 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
3743 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
3744 accept an inexact argument.
3746 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
3747 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
3749 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
3752 ** New number validation macros:
3753 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
3757 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
3759 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
3760 scm_unprotect_object.
3762 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
3764 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
3766 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
3769 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
3771 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
3775 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
3777 * Changes to the distribution
3779 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
3781 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
3782 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
3783 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
3784 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
3785 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
3786 obtain these programs.
3787 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
3788 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
3790 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
3791 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
3792 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
3793 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
3794 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
3796 However, this approach means that minor differences between
3797 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
3798 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
3799 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
3803 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
3806 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
3807 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
3808 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
3809 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
3811 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
3813 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
3815 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
3816 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
3818 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
3819 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
3821 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
3822 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
3824 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
3825 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
3826 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
3827 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
3829 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
3831 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
3835 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
3836 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
3838 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
3840 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
3841 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
3843 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
3844 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
3845 number of objects of that kind.
3847 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
3849 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
3850 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
3851 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
3852 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
3853 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
3855 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
3857 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
3859 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
3861 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
3864 ** New module (ice-9 time)
3866 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
3868 ** New module (ice-9 history)
3870 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
3872 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3874 ** New command line option --debug
3876 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
3878 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
3880 ** New help facility
3882 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
3883 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
3884 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
3885 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
3886 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
3887 (help) gives this text
3889 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
3890 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
3892 Examples: (help help)
3894 (help "output-string")
3896 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
3898 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
3900 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
3901 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
3904 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
3905 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
3906 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
3909 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
3910 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
3911 use absolute filenames when possible.
3913 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
3914 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
3915 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
3918 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
3920 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
3921 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
3922 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
3923 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
3925 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
3927 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
3929 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
3930 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
3931 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
3933 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
3934 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
3935 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
3937 (read-enable 'positions)
3938 (debug-enable 'debug)
3940 ** Backtraces in scripts
3942 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
3946 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
3948 at the top of the script.
3950 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
3951 The second enables backtraces.)
3953 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
3955 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
3956 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
3957 substantially faster than before.
3959 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
3960 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
3962 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
3963 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
3965 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
3967 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
3968 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
3969 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
3971 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
3972 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
3973 when this hook is run in the future.
3975 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
3976 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
3978 ** Improvements to garbage collector
3980 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
3981 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
3984 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
3985 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
3986 more and more memory for certain programs.)
3988 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
3989 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
3991 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
3992 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
3994 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
3995 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
3996 in order not to need further allocation.)
3998 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4001 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4002 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4003 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4004 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4006 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4008 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4011 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4013 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4016 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4017 GC in percent of total heap size
4020 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4021 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4023 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4025 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4026 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4028 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4030 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4031 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4033 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4035 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4036 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4040 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4041 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4043 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4045 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4047 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4049 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4051 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4053 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4054 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4056 (simple-format port message . args)
4057 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4058 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4059 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4060 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4061 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4062 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4063 Does not add a trailing newline."
4065 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4067 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4068 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4070 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4071 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4073 ** Deprecated: list*
4075 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4077 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4079 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4080 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4082 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4083 is returned as result.
4085 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4087 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4089 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4091 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4092 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4095 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4097 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4099 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4100 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4102 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4104 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4106 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4108 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4110 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4112 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4114 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4116 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4117 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4118 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4120 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4123 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4125 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4126 the readability of argument checking.
4128 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4130 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4132 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4134 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4135 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4136 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4137 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4138 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4139 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4140 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4142 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4144 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4146 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4147 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4149 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4151 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4152 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4155 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4157 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4158 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4159 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4161 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4162 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4163 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4165 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4166 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4167 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4168 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4169 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4170 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4171 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4173 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4174 scm_end_input (object);
4175 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4176 ptob->flush (object);
4178 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4179 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4182 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4184 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4186 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4187 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4188 removed in a future version.
4190 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4192 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4193 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4194 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4195 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4197 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4198 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4200 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4203 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4205 in your configure.in.
4207 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4212 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4218 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4220 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4224 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4225 (define make-message string-append)
4227 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4229 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4233 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4238 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4242 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4244 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4245 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4247 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4249 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4250 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4251 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4252 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4253 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4254 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4256 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4257 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4258 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4260 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4261 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4262 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4265 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4266 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4267 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4268 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4269 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4271 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4272 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4273 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4274 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4275 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4276 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4277 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4279 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4281 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4282 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4283 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4285 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4286 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4287 KEY in the calling thread.
4289 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4290 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4291 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4292 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4293 associated with the key.
4295 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4297 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4298 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4300 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4302 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4303 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4304 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4306 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4308 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4309 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4311 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4313 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4315 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4316 returned is undefined.
4318 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4319 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4320 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4322 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4323 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4324 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4326 ** New C level GC hooks
4328 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
4330 scm_before_gc_c_hook
4333 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
4334 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
4335 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
4337 scm_before_mark_c_hook
4338 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
4339 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
4341 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
4342 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
4345 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
4347 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
4348 allocation parameters
4350 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
4351 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
4352 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
4356 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
4357 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
4358 scm_default_max_segment_size
4360 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
4362 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
4363 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
4365 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
4367 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
4368 object and count on the object being protected until
4369 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
4371 The functions also have better time complexity.
4373 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
4374 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
4375 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
4376 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
4377 are no longer needed.
4379 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
4381 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
4382 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
4383 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
4384 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
4386 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
4388 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
4390 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
4392 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
4393 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
4394 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
4395 until this issue has been settled.
4397 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
4399 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
4401 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
4404 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
4406 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4408 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
4409 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
4410 descriptors were checked.
4412 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
4413 atomically written to a pipe.
4415 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
4416 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
4417 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
4418 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
4419 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
4420 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
4421 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
4424 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
4425 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
4426 is changed without calling tzset.
4428 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
4430 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
4431 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
4432 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
4434 (define write-network-long
4435 (lambda (value port)
4436 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4437 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
4438 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
4440 (define read-network-long
4442 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4443 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
4444 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
4446 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
4447 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
4449 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
4450 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
4451 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
4452 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
4454 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
4455 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
4456 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
4457 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
4461 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
4463 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4467 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
4468 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
4469 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
4475 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
4476 for a description of available commands.
4478 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
4479 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
4480 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
4482 (debug-enable 'backwards)
4484 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
4485 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
4487 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
4489 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
4491 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
4492 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
4493 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
4494 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
4495 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
4496 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
4499 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
4501 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
4502 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
4503 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
4504 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
4506 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
4507 the file and should not be affected by this change.
4509 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
4511 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4513 ** Readline support has changed again.
4515 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
4516 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
4517 to activate readline is now
4519 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
4522 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
4524 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
4525 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
4526 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
4529 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
4530 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
4531 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
4534 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
4535 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
4536 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
4537 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
4538 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
4539 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
4541 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
4542 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
4544 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
4546 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
4547 object it receives is the same string passed to
4548 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
4549 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
4550 string, not the suffix.
4552 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
4553 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
4554 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
4556 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
4558 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
4559 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
4560 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
4561 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
4564 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4566 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
4568 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
4569 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
4570 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
4571 appear from left to right.
4573 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
4576 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
4578 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
4579 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
4581 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4585 *** New function: hook? OBJ
4587 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
4589 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
4591 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
4592 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
4593 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
4595 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
4597 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
4599 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
4601 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
4604 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
4606 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
4607 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
4608 mentioning it here anyway.
4610 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
4612 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
4613 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
4614 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
4615 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
4618 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
4620 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
4622 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
4624 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
4625 otherwise return #f.
4627 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
4629 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
4630 returned by `opendir'.
4632 ** New function: using-readline?
4634 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
4636 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4638 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
4639 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4641 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4643 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4645 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
4646 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
4647 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4649 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
4651 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
4652 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
4654 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
4656 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
4657 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
4658 documentation slots are not yet used.
4660 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
4662 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
4663 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
4664 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
4669 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
4670 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
4671 (string-append x y))
4673 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
4674 can also be used for concatenating strings.
4676 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
4677 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
4678 be made in a clean way.]
4680 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
4682 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4684 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4686 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
4687 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
4689 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4691 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
4693 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4695 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4697 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
4698 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
4699 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
4700 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
4703 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4705 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
4707 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4709 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4711 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
4712 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
4714 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4716 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
4718 Evaluates the body of a special form.
4720 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
4722 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
4723 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
4724 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
4725 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
4726 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
4727 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
4729 This should not make any difference for most users.
4731 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
4733 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
4734 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
4736 *** New functions for applying generic functions
4738 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
4739 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
4740 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
4741 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
4742 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
4744 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
4746 It is now replaced by:
4748 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
4750 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4751 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4753 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4755 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
4756 This might change when we get the new module system.
4758 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
4762 Changes since Guile 1.3:
4764 * Changes to mailing lists
4766 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
4768 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
4771 * Changes to the distribution
4773 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
4775 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
4776 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
4777 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
4778 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
4779 you explicitly specify it.
4781 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
4782 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
4783 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
4784 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
4785 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
4788 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
4789 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
4790 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
4791 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
4793 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
4794 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
4795 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
4798 You can activate the readline support by issuing
4800 (use-modules (readline-activator))
4803 from your ".guile" file, for example.
4805 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4807 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
4808 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
4809 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
4810 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
4812 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
4813 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
4816 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4818 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
4819 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
4820 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
4821 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
4822 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
4823 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
4824 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
4825 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
4837 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
4838 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
4839 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
4840 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
4841 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
4846 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
4847 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
4855 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
4860 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
4861 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
4864 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
4865 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
4866 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
4867 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
4869 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
4871 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
4873 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
4874 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
4876 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
4878 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
4880 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
4881 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
4883 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
4886 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
4888 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
4890 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
4892 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
4894 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
4896 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
4898 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
4899 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
4900 when the hook was created.
4902 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
4903 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
4904 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
4905 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
4906 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
4907 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
4908 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
4909 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
4910 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
4912 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
4913 the dlopen family of functions.
4915 ** New function `provided?'
4917 - Function: provided? FEATURE
4918 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
4919 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
4920 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
4922 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
4924 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
4925 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
4926 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
4927 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4930 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4931 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
4932 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
4933 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
4935 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
4936 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
4937 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
4940 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
4941 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
4942 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
4943 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
4944 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
4945 but with the flag set.
4947 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
4949 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
4950 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
4952 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
4953 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
4954 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
4955 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
4956 available Scheme format implementations.
4958 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
4959 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
4960 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
4961 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
4962 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
4963 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
4964 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
4965 output is to the current error port if available by the
4966 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
4969 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
4970 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
4971 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
4972 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
4973 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
4974 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
4975 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
4976 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
4978 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
4979 be executed at a time.
4982 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
4984 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
4985 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
4986 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
4988 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
4989 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
4990 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
4991 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
4992 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
4993 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
4994 general form of a directive is:
4996 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
4998 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5000 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5002 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5003 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5004 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5007 Any (print as `display' does).
5011 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5015 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5019 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5025 print number sign always.
5028 print comma separated.
5030 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5036 print number sign always.
5039 print comma separated.
5041 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5047 print number sign always.
5050 print comma separated.
5052 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5058 print number sign always.
5061 print comma separated.
5063 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5068 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5072 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5075 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5078 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5081 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5086 prints `y' and `ies'.
5089 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5092 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5097 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5101 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5104 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5105 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5107 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5110 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5111 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5113 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5116 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5118 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5120 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5123 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5125 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5127 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5130 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5133 The sign appears before the padding.
5141 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5143 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5148 print N page separators.
5158 newline is ignored, white space left.
5161 newline is left, white space ignored.
5166 relative tabulation.
5172 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5174 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5177 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5179 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5182 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5185 converts by `string-upcase'.
5188 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5190 jumps N arguments forward.
5193 jumps 1 argument backward.
5196 jumps N arguments backward.
5199 jumps to the 0th argument.
5202 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5204 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5205 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5207 take argument from N.
5210 true test conditional.
5213 if-else-then conditional.
5219 default clause follows.
5222 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5224 at most N iterations.
5227 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5230 args from the rest of arguments.
5233 args from the rest args (lists).
5244 aborts if N <= M <= K
5246 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5249 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5252 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5258 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5260 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5262 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5263 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5264 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5265 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5266 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5267 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5271 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5275 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5281 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5284 Print a `#\space' character
5286 print N `#\space' characters.
5289 Print a `#\tab' character
5291 print N `#\tab' characters.
5294 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5295 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5296 must be a positive decimal number.
5299 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5300 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5301 be processed by `read'.
5304 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5305 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5306 be processed by `read'.
5309 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5312 prints format version.
5315 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5316 and format it accordingly.
5318 *** Configuration Variables
5320 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5321 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5322 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5323 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5326 format:symbol-case-conv
5327 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
5328 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
5329 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
5330 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
5331 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
5333 format:iobj-case-conv
5334 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
5335 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
5338 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
5341 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
5347 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
5348 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
5349 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
5350 `format' padding style.
5353 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
5354 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
5355 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
5356 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
5360 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
5361 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
5362 directive parameters or modifiers)).
5365 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
5366 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
5367 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
5368 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
5369 parameters or modifiers)).
5372 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
5374 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
5376 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
5377 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
5379 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
5380 string-downcase! functions.
5382 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
5383 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
5385 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
5388 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
5391 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
5392 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
5394 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
5396 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
5397 the symbol had be read by `read'.
5399 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
5400 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
5401 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
5402 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
5403 would if STRING were input.
5405 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
5407 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
5408 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
5409 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
5410 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
5413 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
5415 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
5416 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
5419 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
5421 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
5422 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
5424 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
5425 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
5427 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
5428 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
5429 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
5430 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
5432 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
5433 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
5435 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
5436 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
5437 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
5439 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
5440 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
5442 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
5443 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
5444 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
5445 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
5446 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
5448 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
5449 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
5450 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
5451 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
5452 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
5453 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
5455 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
5456 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
5457 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
5460 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
5461 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
5462 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
5463 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
5464 the following grammar:
5465 ((apples (single-char #\a))
5466 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
5467 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
5468 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
5469 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
5470 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
5471 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
5472 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
5473 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
5474 last option in its combination)
5476 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
5477 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
5478 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
5479 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
5481 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
5482 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
5483 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
5485 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5486 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5487 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
5489 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
5490 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
5491 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
5492 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
5493 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
5494 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
5495 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
5496 ordinary argument strings.
5498 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
5499 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
5500 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
5501 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
5503 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
5504 as a list, associated with the empty list.
5506 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
5507 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
5508 - a required option is omitted
5509 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
5510 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
5511 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
5512 - an option predicate fails
5517 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
5520 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
5521 (verbose (required? #f)
5524 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
5525 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
5526 (predicate ,string?))))
5528 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
5529 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5531 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5532 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
5533 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
5534 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
5537 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
5539 It will be removed in a few releases.
5541 ** New syntax: lambda*
5542 ** New syntax: define*
5543 ** New syntax: define*-public
5544 ** New syntax: defmacro*
5545 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
5546 Guile now supports optional arguments.
5548 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
5549 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
5550 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
5551 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
5552 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
5554 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
5555 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
5556 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
5558 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
5560 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
5561 and examples for `lambda*':
5564 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
5566 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
5567 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
5568 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
5569 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
5570 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
5571 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
5572 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
5573 can be checked with the bound? macro.
5575 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
5577 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
5578 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
5579 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
5580 are given as keywords are bound to values.
5582 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
5583 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
5584 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
5585 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
5586 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
5587 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
5588 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
5589 and until the procedure is called.
5591 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
5593 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
5594 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
5595 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
5596 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
5597 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
5598 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
5599 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
5600 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
5601 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
5602 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
5604 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
5605 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
5606 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
5607 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
5610 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
5612 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
5613 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
5614 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
5615 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
5617 ** New syntax: and-let*
5618 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
5620 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
5621 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
5622 (<variable> <expression>)
5625 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
5626 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
5627 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
5630 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
5631 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
5632 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
5633 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
5634 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
5635 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
5636 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
5638 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
5639 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
5640 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
5641 shadow earlier bindings.
5643 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
5645 ** New sorting functions
5647 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
5648 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
5649 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
5650 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
5652 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
5653 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
5656 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5657 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
5658 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
5660 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
5661 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
5662 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
5663 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
5665 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5666 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
5667 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
5668 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
5669 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
5672 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5673 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
5674 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
5675 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
5676 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
5677 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
5679 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
5680 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
5681 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
5683 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5684 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
5685 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
5688 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
5689 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
5690 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
5692 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
5693 Added for compatibility with scsh.
5695 ** New built-in random number support
5697 *** New function: random N [STATE]
5698 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
5699 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
5700 returned have a uniform distribution.
5702 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
5703 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
5704 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
5705 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
5706 effect of the `random' operation.
5708 *** New variable: *random-state*
5709 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
5710 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
5711 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
5712 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
5713 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
5716 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
5717 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5718 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5719 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
5720 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
5722 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
5723 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5724 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5725 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
5726 initialized using SEED.
5728 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
5729 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
5730 range between 0 and 1.
5732 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5733 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
5734 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
5735 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
5736 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
5737 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
5738 or a uniform vector of doubles.
5740 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5741 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
5742 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
5743 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
5744 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
5745 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5747 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
5748 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
5749 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
5750 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
5752 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
5753 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
5754 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
5755 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5757 *** New function: random:exp STATE
5758 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
5759 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
5761 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
5763 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
5766 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
5767 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
5770 ** New function: make-guardian
5771 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
5772 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
5773 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
5774 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
5775 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
5777 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
5778 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
5779 one object if at all.
5781 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
5782 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
5783 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
5785 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
5786 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
5787 read again in last-in first-out order.
5789 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
5790 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
5792 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
5794 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
5795 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
5796 file position is used.
5798 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
5799 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
5800 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
5802 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
5803 redefined using seek.
5805 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
5806 size is not supplied.
5808 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
5809 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
5811 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
5812 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
5814 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
5816 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
5817 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
5818 and returns the contents as a single string.
5820 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
5821 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
5822 lists in serial order.
5824 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
5825 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
5826 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
5828 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
5829 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
5830 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
5831 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
5833 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
5834 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
5835 and #f if an error occured.
5837 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
5839 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
5840 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
5841 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
5842 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
5844 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
5846 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
5849 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
5851 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
5854 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5858 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
5859 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
5861 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
5862 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
5866 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5868 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
5870 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5871 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5873 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5875 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
5876 might change when we get the new module system.
5878 ** The smob interface
5880 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
5881 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
5883 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
5885 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
5889 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
5890 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
5891 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
5892 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
5893 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
5894 will be freed by the default free function.
5896 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5897 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
5898 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5899 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5901 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5902 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
5903 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5904 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5906 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
5908 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
5909 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
5913 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
5914 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5915 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5917 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
5918 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
5919 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5920 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5922 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
5923 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
5924 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
5926 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
5927 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
5928 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
5929 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
5931 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
5932 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
5933 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
5935 *** scm_newptob has been removed
5939 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
5941 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
5942 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
5943 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
5945 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
5946 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
5947 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
5949 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
5950 a string port's buffer.
5952 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
5953 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
5954 function pointers which together define the current random number
5955 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
5956 number library functions.
5958 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
5961 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
5962 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
5965 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
5966 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5968 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
5969 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
5971 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
5972 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
5975 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
5976 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
5977 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
5978 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
5980 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
5981 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
5982 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
5983 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
5984 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
5985 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
5986 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
5988 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
5989 by libguile and the application.
5991 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5992 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5993 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
5994 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
5996 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
5997 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
5999 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6000 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6001 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6003 ** Random number library functions
6004 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6005 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6006 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6008 The default random state is stored in:
6010 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6011 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6012 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6017 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6019 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6020 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6021 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6022 isn't a random state.
6024 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6025 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6027 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6028 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6029 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6030 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6032 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6033 Return 32 random bits.
6035 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6036 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6038 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6039 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6041 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6042 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6044 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6045 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6047 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6048 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6049 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6053 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6055 * Changes to the distribution
6057 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6058 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6059 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6062 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6063 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6064 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6066 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6067 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6068 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6069 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6072 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6073 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6074 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6076 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6078 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6080 *** Function: batch-mode?
6082 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6085 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6087 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6088 case has not been implemented.
6090 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6091 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6092 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6095 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6096 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6098 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6100 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6102 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6104 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6105 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6108 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6109 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6110 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6111 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6114 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6116 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6117 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6118 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6119 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6120 find those libraries.
6122 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6123 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6126 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6128 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6129 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6130 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6131 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6133 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6134 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6135 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6139 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6141 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6142 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6143 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6146 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6147 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6148 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6149 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6151 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6152 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6155 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6156 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6157 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6158 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6159 compiler where to find the libraries.
6161 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6162 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6163 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6165 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6166 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6167 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6168 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6169 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6173 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6175 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6176 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6177 internationalization support.
6179 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6180 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6181 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6182 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6183 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6185 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6186 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6187 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6188 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6189 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6191 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6192 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6193 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6194 any GNU mirror site.
6196 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6198 ** New function: add-history STRING
6199 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6200 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6201 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6203 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6205 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6206 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6207 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6210 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6211 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6212 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6214 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6216 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6219 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6220 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6223 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6224 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6225 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6226 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6227 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6228 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6230 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6231 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6232 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6233 of the form mentioned above.
6235 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6236 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6237 returned in the special `rest' list.
6239 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6240 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6242 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6244 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6246 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6248 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6249 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6250 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6251 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6252 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6253 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6254 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6255 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6258 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6260 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6262 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6263 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6266 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6267 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6268 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6272 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6273 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6274 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6275 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6276 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6277 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6278 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6279 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6282 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6284 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6285 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6286 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6288 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6290 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6291 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6293 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6294 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6295 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6297 Why do we have this function?
6298 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6299 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6300 primitive, and display it differently, and
6301 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6302 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6305 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6306 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6309 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6310 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6311 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6312 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6314 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6315 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6318 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6319 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6321 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6323 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6324 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6325 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6326 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6327 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
6328 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
6329 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
6332 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
6334 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
6335 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
6337 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
6338 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
6339 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
6340 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
6341 properly continue the print chain.
6343 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
6344 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
6345 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
6346 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
6347 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
6348 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
6349 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
6350 print-state, it is simply ignored.
6352 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
6353 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
6354 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
6355 safest to not check for these pairs.
6357 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
6358 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
6359 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
6360 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
6362 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
6364 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
6365 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
6367 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
6369 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
6371 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
6372 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
6373 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
6375 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
6376 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
6377 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
6379 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
6380 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
6381 the following functions and macros:
6383 Function: make-fluid
6385 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
6386 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
6387 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
6388 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
6389 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
6391 Function: fluid? OBJ
6393 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
6395 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
6396 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
6398 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
6399 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
6401 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
6403 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
6404 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
6405 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
6406 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
6407 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
6408 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
6409 modified by `with-fluids*'.
6411 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
6413 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
6414 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
6415 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
6416 should evaluate to a fluid.
6418 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
6420 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
6421 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
6422 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
6423 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
6424 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
6426 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
6429 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
6431 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
6433 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
6435 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
6438 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
6439 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
6440 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
6441 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
6442 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
6445 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
6446 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
6447 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
6449 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
6450 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
6451 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
6453 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
6454 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
6455 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6456 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
6458 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
6459 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
6460 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6461 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
6463 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
6464 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
6465 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
6466 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
6468 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
6469 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
6470 their revealed counts set to zero.
6472 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6473 Returns an integer file descriptor.
6475 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6476 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
6478 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6479 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
6481 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6482 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
6483 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
6485 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
6486 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
6487 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
6489 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
6490 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
6491 default environment inherited by child processes.
6493 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
6494 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
6495 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
6497 The return value is unspecified.
6499 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
6500 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
6501 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
6502 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
6503 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
6505 The return value is unspecified.
6507 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
6508 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
6516 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
6517 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
6520 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
6523 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
6524 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
6525 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
6527 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
6528 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
6529 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
6530 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
6533 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
6534 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
6536 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
6537 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
6538 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
6539 the `environ' procedure.
6541 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
6542 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
6545 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
6546 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
6548 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
6549 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
6550 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
6551 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
6553 *** procedure: times
6554 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
6555 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
6556 return a selected component:
6559 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
6563 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
6566 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
6570 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
6571 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
6575 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
6576 terminated child processes.
6578 ** Removed: list-length
6579 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
6580 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
6582 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
6584 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
6586 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
6588 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
6589 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
6590 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
6591 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
6593 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
6594 extra complexity it introduces.
6596 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
6597 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
6599 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
6600 variable to any non-empty value.
6602 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
6603 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
6605 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6607 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
6608 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
6610 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
6612 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
6613 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
6615 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
6617 ** vector handling routines
6619 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
6620 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
6621 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
6622 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
6623 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
6625 ** pair and list routines
6627 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
6630 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
6632 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
6635 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6637 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
6639 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
6640 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
6641 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
6642 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
6643 site-specific initialization code.
6645 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
6646 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
6647 initialization processes.
6649 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
6650 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
6651 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
6652 initialized properly.
6654 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
6655 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
6656 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
6658 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
6659 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
6660 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
6661 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
6662 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
6664 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
6666 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
6667 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
6668 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
6669 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
6670 objects the smob refers to get marked.
6672 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
6673 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
6674 which look like this:
6677 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
6679 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
6680 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
6683 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
6684 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
6687 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
6689 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
6690 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
6691 you will need to change your functions slightly.
6693 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
6694 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
6695 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
6696 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
6697 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
6699 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
6700 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
6702 int (*free) (SCM port);
6703 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
6704 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
6705 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
6709 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
6710 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
6711 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
6713 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
6716 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
6717 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
6718 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
6720 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
6721 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
6722 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
6725 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
6729 struct timeval *timeout);
6731 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
6732 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
6733 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
6734 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
6735 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
6736 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
6738 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
6739 scm_catch_body_t body,
6741 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6744 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
6745 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
6746 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
6747 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
6748 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
6749 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
6751 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
6753 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6756 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
6757 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
6758 spawning threads from application C code.
6760 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
6761 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
6762 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
6763 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
6764 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
6765 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
6767 ** Removed functions:
6769 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
6770 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
6772 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
6774 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
6775 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
6777 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
6779 ** mbstrings are now removed
6781 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
6782 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
6784 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
6786 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
6787 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
6788 their new names and arguments:
6790 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
6791 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
6792 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
6793 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
6796 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
6798 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
6800 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
6803 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
6805 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
6806 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
6807 pass a #f arg to catch.
6809 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
6811 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
6812 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
6815 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
6816 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
6817 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
6818 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
6819 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
6820 reclaim its storage.
6822 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
6823 worrying that some other function you call will call
6824 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
6825 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
6826 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
6827 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
6830 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
6832 * Changes to the distribution
6834 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
6835 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
6838 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
6839 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
6841 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6842 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6844 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
6846 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
6847 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
6848 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
6850 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6852 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
6853 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
6854 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
6855 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
6856 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
6857 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
6859 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
6860 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
6861 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
6864 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
6865 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
6866 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
6867 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
6869 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
6870 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
6871 libraries to your link command:
6873 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
6874 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
6875 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6876 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6878 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
6879 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
6880 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
6882 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6884 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
6885 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
6888 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
6890 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
6891 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
6892 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
6893 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
6894 searched is system dependent.
6896 (dynamic-object? VAL)
6898 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
6900 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
6902 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
6903 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
6905 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6907 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
6908 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
6909 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
6910 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
6911 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
6914 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6916 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
6917 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
6918 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
6919 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
6920 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
6922 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
6924 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
6925 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
6927 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
6929 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
6930 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
6931 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
6934 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
6936 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
6937 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
6938 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
6939 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
6941 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
6942 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
6944 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
6946 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
6947 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
6949 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
6951 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
6952 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
6960 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
6962 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
6963 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
6964 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
6965 a more informative way.
6967 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
6968 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
6969 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
6970 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
6971 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
6972 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
6974 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
6975 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
6978 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
6979 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
6980 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
6983 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
6984 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
6985 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
6986 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
6987 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
6988 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
6990 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
6991 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
6992 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
6993 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
6996 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
6997 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
6998 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
6999 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7000 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7001 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7003 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7004 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7005 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7006 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7007 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7009 *** regexp functions
7011 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7012 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7013 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7015 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7016 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7017 with SCSH regular expressions.
7019 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7020 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7021 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7022 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7024 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7025 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7026 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7027 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7029 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7030 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7031 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7032 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7033 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7034 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7036 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7037 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7038 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7039 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7040 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7042 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7044 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7045 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7046 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7047 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7049 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7050 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7051 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7053 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7054 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7056 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7059 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7060 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7061 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7063 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7064 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7065 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7067 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7068 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7069 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7070 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7071 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7074 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7076 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7077 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7078 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7079 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7080 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7081 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7083 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7084 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7085 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7087 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7088 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7091 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7092 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7094 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7095 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7096 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7097 may be one of the following arguments:
7099 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7101 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7103 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7104 the regexp match is written.
7106 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7107 following the regexp match is written.
7109 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7110 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7113 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7114 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7115 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7116 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7117 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7118 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7120 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7123 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7124 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7125 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7126 written out to PORT.
7128 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7129 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7130 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7131 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7132 will return after processing a single match.
7134 *** Match Structures
7136 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7137 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7138 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7139 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7140 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7141 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7144 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7145 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7146 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7147 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7148 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7150 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7151 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7152 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7154 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7155 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7156 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7157 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7158 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7160 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7161 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7163 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7164 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7166 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7167 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7169 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7170 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7172 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7173 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7174 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7175 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7177 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7178 Return the original TARGET string.
7180 *** Backslash Escapes
7182 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7183 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7184 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7185 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7186 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7187 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7189 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7190 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7191 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7192 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7193 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7194 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7195 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7196 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7198 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7199 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7200 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7201 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7202 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7203 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7204 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7206 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7207 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7208 return the resulting string.
7210 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7211 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7212 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7213 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7214 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7215 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7216 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7217 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7218 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7219 translated to the single character `*'.
7221 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7222 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7223 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7224 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7225 consecutive backslashes:
7227 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7229 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7230 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7231 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7233 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7234 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7235 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7236 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7237 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7238 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7240 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7242 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7243 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7244 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7245 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7246 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7247 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7248 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7249 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7250 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7251 cumbersome escape syntax.
7253 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7255 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7257 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7259 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7262 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7264 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7266 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7269 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7270 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7271 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7272 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7273 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7275 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7276 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7277 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7278 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7279 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7280 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7281 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7284 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7285 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7286 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7289 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7290 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7292 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7293 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7294 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7295 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7296 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7297 installed, you can say:
7299 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7302 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7304 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7305 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7306 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7307 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7308 new dynamic roots and threads.
7311 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7313 * Changes to the distribution.
7315 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7317 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7318 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7319 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7320 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7321 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7322 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7323 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7324 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7326 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
7329 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
7330 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
7335 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7337 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
7338 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
7340 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
7341 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
7342 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
7343 the (command-line) function.
7344 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
7345 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
7346 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
7348 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
7349 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
7350 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
7351 command line arguments
7352 -ds do -s script at this point
7353 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
7354 -h, --help display this help and exit
7355 -v, --version display version information and exit
7356 \ read arguments from following script lines
7358 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
7359 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
7361 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7364 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7368 (main (command-line))
7370 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
7372 ekko a speckled gecko
7374 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
7375 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
7376 following list of command-line arguments:
7378 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
7380 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
7381 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
7382 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
7383 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
7384 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7386 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
7388 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
7390 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
7391 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
7394 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
7395 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
7396 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
7397 SCSH) for circumventing them.
7399 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
7400 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
7401 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
7402 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
7404 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
7408 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7412 If the user invokes this script as follows:
7414 ekko a speckled gecko
7416 Unix expands this into
7418 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
7420 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
7421 read from the second line of the script, producing:
7423 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7425 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
7426 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7428 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
7429 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
7430 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
7431 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
7432 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
7433 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
7434 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
7435 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
7436 it only terminates the argument list.)
7437 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
7438 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
7439 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
7440 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
7441 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
7442 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
7443 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
7444 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
7446 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7448 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
7449 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
7450 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
7451 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
7452 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
7454 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
7455 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
7456 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
7458 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
7460 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
7461 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
7462 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
7463 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
7466 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
7467 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7468 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7470 * Changes to Scheme functions
7472 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
7473 and disabled by default.
7475 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
7476 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
7477 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
7478 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
7480 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
7482 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
7484 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
7485 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
7487 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
7488 (read-set! keywords #f)
7490 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
7491 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
7492 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
7495 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
7496 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
7497 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
7500 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
7501 support for Scheme functions.
7503 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7504 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
7505 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
7506 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
7509 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7510 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
7511 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
7514 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
7515 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
7516 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
7519 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
7520 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
7521 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
7522 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
7523 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
7524 display the result as a prompt.
7525 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
7527 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
7528 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
7529 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
7532 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
7533 procedure of zero arguments.
7535 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
7536 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
7537 argument is bound in the current module.
7539 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
7540 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
7541 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
7542 public bindings into the current module.
7544 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
7545 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
7547 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
7548 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
7550 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
7551 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
7553 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
7554 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
7556 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
7557 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
7559 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
7560 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
7561 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
7562 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
7563 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
7565 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
7566 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
7567 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
7568 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
7570 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
7573 ** Changes to I/O functions
7575 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
7576 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
7577 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
7579 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
7580 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
7581 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
7583 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
7584 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
7586 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
7587 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
7588 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
7589 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
7591 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
7593 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
7594 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
7596 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
7597 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
7598 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
7599 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
7600 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
7603 'trim omit delimiter from result
7604 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
7605 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
7606 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
7608 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
7610 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
7611 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
7613 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
7614 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
7615 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
7616 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
7617 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
7619 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
7620 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
7621 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
7623 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
7624 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
7625 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
7626 above, and defaults to 'peek.
7628 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
7629 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7631 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
7632 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
7634 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
7636 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
7637 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
7638 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
7639 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
7640 a delimiting character.
7641 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
7643 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
7644 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
7645 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
7646 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
7647 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
7648 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
7650 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
7651 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7653 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
7654 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
7655 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
7657 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
7658 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
7659 the array to read and write.
7661 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
7662 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
7665 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
7667 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
7670 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
7671 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
7672 Values for COMMAND are:
7674 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
7675 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
7676 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
7677 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
7678 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
7679 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
7680 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
7681 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
7683 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
7685 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
7686 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
7687 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
7688 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
7689 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
7690 corresponding return set will be the same.
7692 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
7695 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
7696 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
7697 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
7698 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
7699 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
7700 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
7701 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
7702 special file being created.
7704 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
7705 clashing with various SCSH forks.
7707 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
7708 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
7709 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
7710 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
7711 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
7712 and originating address.
7714 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
7715 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
7716 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
7718 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
7721 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
7722 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
7725 (status:exit-val STATUS)
7726 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
7727 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
7728 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
7729 this function returns #f.
7731 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
7732 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
7733 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
7736 (status:term-sig STATUS)
7737 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
7738 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
7741 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
7742 a valid STATUS value.
7744 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
7746 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
7747 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
7749 Component Accessor Setter
7750 ========================= ============ ============
7751 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
7752 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
7753 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
7754 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
7755 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
7756 year tm:year set-tm:year
7757 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
7758 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
7759 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
7760 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
7761 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
7763 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
7764 describing the host system:
7767 ============================================== ================
7768 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
7769 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
7770 release level of the operating system utsname:release
7771 version level of the operating system utsname:version
7772 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
7774 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
7775 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
7776 system's user database:
7779 ====================== =================
7780 user name passwd:name
7781 user password passwd:passwd
7784 real name passwd:gecos
7785 home directory passwd:dir
7786 shell program passwd:shell
7788 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
7789 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
7790 system's group database:
7793 ======================= ============
7794 group name group:name
7795 group password group:passwd
7797 group members group:mem
7799 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
7800 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
7804 ========================= ===============
7805 official name of host hostent:name
7806 alias list hostent:aliases
7807 host address type hostent:addrtype
7808 length of address hostent:length
7809 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
7811 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
7812 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
7816 ========================= ===============
7817 official name of net netent:name
7818 alias list netent:aliases
7819 net number type netent:addrtype
7820 net number netent:net
7822 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
7823 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
7827 ========================= ===============
7828 official protocol name protoent:name
7829 alias list protoent:aliases
7830 protocol number protoent:proto
7832 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
7833 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
7837 ========================= ===============
7838 official service name servent:name
7839 alias list servent:aliases
7840 port number servent:port
7841 protocol to use servent:proto
7843 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
7844 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
7847 ======================================== ===============
7848 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
7849 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
7850 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
7851 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
7853 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
7854 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
7855 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
7857 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
7858 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
7860 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
7861 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
7863 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
7864 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
7866 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
7868 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
7870 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
7871 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
7872 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
7874 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
7875 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
7876 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
7877 return the remaining characters as a string.
7879 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
7880 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
7881 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
7883 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
7885 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7887 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
7890 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
7893 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
7894 and returns the array
7896 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
7897 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
7898 the user to interpret the data both ways.
7900 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7902 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
7903 symbol's value from C code:
7905 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
7906 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
7907 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
7908 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
7910 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
7911 without assigning them a value.
7913 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
7914 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
7915 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
7917 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
7918 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
7919 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
7921 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
7922 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
7924 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
7925 doesn't actually care about that.
7927 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
7928 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
7929 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
7931 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
7932 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
7933 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
7934 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
7935 which we have just created and initialized.
7937 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
7938 should one occur. We call it like this:
7939 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
7941 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
7942 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
7943 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
7944 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
7945 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
7946 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
7949 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
7950 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
7951 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
7952 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
7953 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
7954 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
7955 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
7958 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
7959 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
7960 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
7961 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
7962 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
7965 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
7966 scm_internal_catch, except:
7968 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
7969 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
7970 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
7971 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
7974 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
7975 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
7976 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
7978 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
7979 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
7980 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
7981 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
7984 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
7985 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
7986 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
7988 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
7989 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
7990 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
7991 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
7992 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
7994 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
7995 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
7996 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
7998 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
7999 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8000 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8002 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8003 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8005 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8006 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8007 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8010 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8011 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8012 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8013 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8014 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8015 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8016 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8019 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8020 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8022 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8023 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8024 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8025 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8026 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8029 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8030 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8032 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8033 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8036 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8037 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8039 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8042 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8043 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8044 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8045 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8046 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8047 given the following arguments:
8049 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8051 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8053 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8055 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8058 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8059 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8060 command-line arguments.
8062 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8063 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8064 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8065 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8066 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8067 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8070 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8073 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8074 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8076 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8077 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8079 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8080 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8081 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8082 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8084 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8085 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8087 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8088 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8089 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8090 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8092 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8093 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8095 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8096 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8098 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8100 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8101 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8102 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8105 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8106 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8108 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8109 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8114 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8117 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8119 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8120 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8121 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8122 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8124 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8126 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8128 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8129 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8130 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8131 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8132 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8133 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8134 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8135 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8136 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8137 for more information.
8139 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8140 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8142 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8143 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8144 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8145 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8146 following two lines at the top of the file:
8148 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8151 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8152 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8153 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8155 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8157 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8159 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8162 (display (car args))
8163 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8165 (loop (cdr args)))))
8168 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8169 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8170 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8171 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8172 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8173 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8177 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8180 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8183 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8185 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8186 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8187 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8188 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8189 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8192 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8193 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8194 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8195 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8196 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8199 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8202 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8203 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8204 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8207 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8208 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8209 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8211 to see a backtrace, and
8212 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8213 to see them by default.
8217 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8219 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8221 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8222 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8225 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8226 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8227 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8228 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8231 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8232 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8233 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8234 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8235 functions which inspired them.
8237 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8238 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8242 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8244 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8246 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8247 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8250 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8251 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8252 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8254 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8255 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8256 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8257 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8258 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8260 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8262 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8263 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8264 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8267 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8270 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8272 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8273 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8274 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8275 above should serve their purposes.
8277 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8278 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8279 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8280 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8282 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8285 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8286 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8287 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8288 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8290 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8291 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8292 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8293 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8295 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8296 for the `read' function.
8299 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8300 to that of `integer?'.
8302 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8303 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8305 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8306 it simply returns the object's property list.
8308 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8309 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8310 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8311 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8313 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8315 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8318 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8320 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8321 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8323 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8325 void (*main_func) (),
8328 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
8329 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
8330 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
8331 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
8332 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
8334 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
8335 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
8336 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
8337 know which arguments have been processed.
8339 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
8340 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
8341 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
8342 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
8343 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
8345 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
8346 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
8347 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
8348 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
8349 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
8350 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
8351 people from making that mistake.
8353 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
8354 convenient ways to override these when desired.
8356 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
8358 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
8362 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
8365 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
8366 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
8367 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
8368 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
8371 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
8372 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
8373 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
8374 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
8377 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
8378 have been added to the Guile library.
8380 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
8381 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
8382 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
8385 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
8386 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
8387 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
8389 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
8390 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
8391 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
8392 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
8393 argument from the list.
8396 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
8399 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
8400 null-terminated string, and returns it.
8402 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
8403 to a Scheme port object.
8405 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
8406 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
8411 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
8413 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
8414 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
8415 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
8416 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
8417 code as a special datatype.
8419 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
8420 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
8421 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
8422 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
8423 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
8426 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
8427 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
8428 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
8429 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
8430 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
8432 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
8435 Copyright information:
8437 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8439 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8440 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8441 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8442 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8444 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8445 of this document, or of portions of it,
8446 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8447 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8452 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"