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.
10 * New modules (see the manual for details)
12 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', multithreading support
13 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
15 * Changes to the distribution
17 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
19 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
20 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
22 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
23 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
25 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
26 This slightly improves program startup times.
28 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
29 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
31 * Changes to the C interface
33 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
35 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
37 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
40 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
41 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
43 ** Primitive procedures (aka. "subrs") are now stored in double cells
44 This removes the subr table and simplifies the code.
46 ** Primitive procedures with more than 3 arguments (aka. "gsubrs") are
47 no longer implemented using the "compiled closure" mechanism. This
48 simplifies code and reduces both the storage and run-time overhead.
51 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
55 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
56 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
57 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
58 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
60 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
62 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
63 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
64 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
68 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
70 * New features (see the manual for details)
72 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
74 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
76 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
77 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
78 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
80 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
82 * Changes to the distribution
84 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
86 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
87 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
89 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
91 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
92 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
97 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
98 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
99 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
100 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
101 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
102 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
103 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
104 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
105 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
106 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
107 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
108 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
109 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
110 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
112 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
113 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
114 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
115 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
116 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
119 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
121 * Infrastructure changes
123 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
125 The new repository can be accessed using
126 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
127 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
129 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
131 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
133 * New modules (see the manual for details)
137 * New features (see the manual for details)
139 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
140 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
141 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
143 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
144 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
145 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
146 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
148 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
150 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
151 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
152 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
156 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
157 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
159 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
160 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
162 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
163 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
165 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
166 lead to a stack overflow.
168 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
169 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
170 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
171 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
172 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
173 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
174 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
175 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
176 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
177 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
178 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
179 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
180 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
181 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
182 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
183 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
185 * Changes to the distribution
189 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
190 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
193 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
197 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
198 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
199 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
200 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
201 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
202 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
203 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
204 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
205 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
206 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
207 system and library calls.
208 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
209 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
210 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
211 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
212 uniform vectors on AIX.
213 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
214 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
215 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
216 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
217 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
219 * New modules (see the manual for details)
223 * Documentation fixes and improvements
225 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
227 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
228 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
230 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
232 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
234 * Changes to the distribution
236 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
238 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
239 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
240 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
242 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
244 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
247 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
249 * New modules (see the manual for details)
256 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
257 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
258 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
259 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
260 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
261 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
262 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
264 * Implementation improvements
266 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
267 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
270 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
272 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
274 ** set-program-arguments
277 * Incompatible changes
279 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
281 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
282 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
283 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
284 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
289 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
290 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
291 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
292 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
293 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
294 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
296 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
297 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
298 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
299 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
300 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
301 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
302 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
303 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
304 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
305 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
306 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
307 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
308 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
309 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
310 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
311 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
314 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
316 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
318 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
320 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
321 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
322 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
323 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
324 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
325 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
333 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
335 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
337 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
339 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
341 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
343 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
345 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
346 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
347 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
349 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
351 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
353 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
354 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
356 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
358 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
359 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
361 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
363 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
365 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
367 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
369 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
371 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
373 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
375 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
377 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
379 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
380 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
381 file was on a different device.
384 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
386 * Changes to the distribution
388 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
390 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
392 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
394 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
396 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
398 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
401 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
403 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
404 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
405 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
406 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
407 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
408 items like the versioned share directory name
409 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
411 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
412 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
413 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
414 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
415 with each micro release during a stable series.
417 ** Thread implementation has changed.
419 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
420 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
421 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
422 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
423 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
426 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
427 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
428 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
429 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
432 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
433 in which case "null" threads are used.
435 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
436 "Blocking", and others.
438 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
440 This is a milder form of deprecation.
442 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
443 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
444 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
445 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
446 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
448 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
449 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
451 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
453 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
454 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
456 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
459 This SRFI is always available.
461 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
463 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
464 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
465 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
466 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
469 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
471 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
472 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
473 parameters without currying.
475 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
477 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
478 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
480 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
481 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
484 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
485 with a renaming import, for example.
487 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
489 The official version is good enough now.
491 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
493 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
494 provided. Use 'make html'.
496 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
498 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
499 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
500 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
501 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
503 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
505 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
508 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
510 ** New command line option `-L'.
512 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
514 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
516 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
517 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
519 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
521 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
522 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
524 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
526 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
527 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
530 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
533 (define-module (demo)
537 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
540 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
542 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
544 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
545 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
546 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
548 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
550 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
551 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
553 ** New function hashx-remove!
555 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
557 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
558 barriers and dynamic states.
560 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
561 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
562 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
565 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
566 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
567 Barriers" in the manual.
569 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
570 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
572 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
574 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
575 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
576 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
579 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
581 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
582 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
584 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
585 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
586 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
588 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
589 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
591 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
592 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
593 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
595 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
596 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
597 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
600 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
601 substrings and read-only strings.
603 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
604 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
607 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
609 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
618 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
619 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
620 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
622 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
623 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
624 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
627 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
628 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
631 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
633 See the manual for details.
635 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
637 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
640 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
642 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
643 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
644 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
645 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
647 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
648 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
649 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
652 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
654 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
655 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
666 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
670 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
675 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
679 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
683 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
686 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
687 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
688 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
689 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
691 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
692 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
695 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
698 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
702 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
704 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
705 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
706 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
709 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
712 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
714 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
717 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
718 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
726 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
727 has been detected is to
729 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
730 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
731 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
734 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
737 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
739 to your .guile init file.
741 ** New define-module option: :replace
743 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
746 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
747 for the core binding `format'.
749 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
751 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
752 a prefix to all imported bindings.
755 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
757 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
760 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
762 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
763 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
764 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
766 ** New function: effective-version
768 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
769 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
770 to the distribution" above.
772 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
774 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
775 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
777 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
779 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
780 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
782 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
784 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
785 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
788 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
790 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
792 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
794 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
795 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
796 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
799 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
800 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
801 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
804 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
805 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
807 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
808 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
809 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
812 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
814 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
815 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
818 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
819 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
821 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
822 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
823 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
824 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
825 level for the current thread.
827 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
829 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
831 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
832 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
835 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
837 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
839 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
842 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
844 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
847 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
848 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
849 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
851 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
852 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
853 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
854 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
865 ERROR: Numerical overflow
867 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
870 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
872 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
873 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
874 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
885 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
887 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
888 them is also done exactly, of course:
893 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
896 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
897 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
899 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
901 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
902 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
903 equal to a floating point number. For example:
905 (inexact->exact 1.234)
906 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
908 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
910 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
913 ** New function 'rationalize'.
915 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
916 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
918 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
921 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
922 result when both its arguments are exact.
924 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
926 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
927 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
928 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
930 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
932 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
933 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
934 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
936 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
939 ** pretty-print has more options.
941 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
942 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
943 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
945 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
947 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
948 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
949 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
951 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
953 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
954 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
956 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
958 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
959 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
962 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
964 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
965 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
966 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
967 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
968 without the soft port blocking.
970 ** Deprecated: undefine
972 There is no replacement for undefine.
974 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
975 have been discouraged.
977 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
978 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
979 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
982 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
984 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
986 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
987 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
988 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
989 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
992 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
993 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
994 be removed in the next major Guile release.
996 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
998 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
999 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
1000 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
1001 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
1002 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
1003 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
1005 * Changes to the C interface
1007 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
1008 take a 'delete' function argument.
1010 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
1011 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
1013 This is an incompatible change.
1015 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
1017 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
1018 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
1019 --disable-deprecated.
1021 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
1023 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
1024 Scheme values has been added.
1026 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
1027 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
1030 - int scm_is_* (...)
1032 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
1033 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
1035 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1037 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1038 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1041 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1043 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1044 scm_from_int for ints.
1046 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1047 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1048 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1050 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1052 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1053 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1054 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1057 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1059 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1061 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1063 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1064 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1065 following alternatives.
1067 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1068 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1069 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1070 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1072 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1073 do the validating for you.
1075 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1076 have been discouraged.
1078 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1079 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1082 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1084 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1085 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1088 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1090 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1093 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1096 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1098 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1099 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1101 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1102 scm_truncate_number should have.
1104 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1105 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1107 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1110 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1111 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1112 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1114 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1115 easier to use from C.
1117 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1118 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1120 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1121 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1122 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1125 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1126 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1127 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1128 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1131 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1132 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1133 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1134 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1135 and is thus quite efficient.
1137 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1139 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1140 about the character encoding.
1142 Replace according to the following table:
1144 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1145 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1146 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1147 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1148 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1149 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1150 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1151 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1152 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1154 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1155 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1157 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1159 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1160 now also available to C code.
1162 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1164 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1165 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1166 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1168 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1171 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1173 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1174 unceremoniously removed.
1176 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1177 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1178 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1180 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1181 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1182 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1183 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1184 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1185 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1188 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1190 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1191 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1192 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1193 manual for more details.
1195 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1196 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1198 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1199 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1200 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1202 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1204 Migrate according to the following table:
1206 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1207 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1208 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1209 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1210 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1211 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1212 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1214 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1215 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1216 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1217 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1218 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1219 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1220 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1222 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1224 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1225 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1227 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1228 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1229 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1230 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1232 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1234 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1235 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1236 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1238 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1239 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1241 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1242 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1243 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1244 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1246 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1248 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1249 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1250 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1251 prevent a potential memory leak:
1258 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1260 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1261 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1263 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1264 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1271 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1272 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1276 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1278 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1280 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1281 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1282 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1284 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1285 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1287 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1289 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1291 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1292 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1293 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1295 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1296 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1298 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1299 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1300 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1301 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1304 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1306 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1307 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1308 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1310 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1312 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1313 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1315 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1317 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1318 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1320 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1322 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1323 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1324 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1326 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1328 You should not have used them.
1330 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1332 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1333 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1335 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1337 This macro is not intended for public use.
1339 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1341 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1343 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1345 Use scm_is_real instead.
1347 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1349 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1351 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1353 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1354 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1356 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1357 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1359 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1360 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1362 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1364 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1367 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1369 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1370 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1371 to the distribution" above.
1373 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1375 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1376 arguments are now passed directly:
1378 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1380 This is an incompatible change.
1382 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1384 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1385 function in the init section.
1387 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1389 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1391 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1392 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1393 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1394 stays roughly constant.
1396 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1397 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1398 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1399 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1400 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1403 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1404 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1405 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1406 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1408 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1409 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1410 objects for every type.
1413 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1415 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1417 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1419 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1420 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1421 initializes a new cell (see below).
1423 ** New functions for memory management
1425 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1426 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1427 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1428 cause aborts in long running programs.
1430 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1431 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1433 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1434 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1435 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1436 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1437 details and for upgrading instructions.
1439 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1440 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1441 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1443 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1445 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1446 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1447 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1448 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1449 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1451 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1452 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1453 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1455 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1456 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1458 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1460 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1461 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1462 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1463 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1464 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1466 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1468 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1471 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1473 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1475 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1477 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1478 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1480 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1482 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1483 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1485 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1486 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1488 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1490 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1492 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1493 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1494 blocking it is not well defined.
1496 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1498 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1499 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1500 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1501 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1502 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1503 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1504 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1505 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1506 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1507 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1508 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1509 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1510 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1511 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1512 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1513 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1514 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1515 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1516 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1517 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1518 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1519 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1520 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1521 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1522 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1523 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1524 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1525 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1526 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1527 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1528 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1530 * Changes to bundled modules
1534 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1535 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1536 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1537 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1538 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1541 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1543 * Changes to the distribution
1545 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1547 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1549 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1550 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1551 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1552 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1553 indicate major changes in Guile.
1555 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1556 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1557 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1558 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1560 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1561 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1562 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1563 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1564 micro version number.
1566 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1568 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1570 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1571 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1573 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1575 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1576 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1577 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1579 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1581 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1582 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1583 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1586 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1588 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1591 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1593 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1594 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1596 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1598 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1599 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1602 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1604 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1607 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1610 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1612 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1614 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1615 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1616 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1618 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1620 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1622 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1625 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1627 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1629 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1631 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1632 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1633 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1635 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1637 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1639 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1640 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1649 See README there for more info.
1651 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1652 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1655 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1657 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1659 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1661 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1662 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1663 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1665 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1667 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1668 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1669 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1671 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1672 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1674 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1677 (oop goops describe)
1679 (oop goops active-slot)
1680 (oop goops composite-slot)
1682 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1683 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1684 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1686 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1688 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1689 in the default environment:
1691 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1692 %read-line write-line
1694 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1695 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1697 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1699 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1702 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1703 can be used for similar functionality.
1705 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1707 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1708 it defines two procedures:
1710 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1712 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1713 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1714 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1717 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1719 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1720 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1721 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1722 write large strings.
1724 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1726 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1727 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1729 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1731 for complete documentation.
1733 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1735 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1736 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1737 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1738 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1740 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1741 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1745 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1746 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1747 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1750 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1753 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1754 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1756 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1757 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1760 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1763 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1765 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1767 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1769 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1771 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1772 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1773 Scheme programs easier.
1775 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1776 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1777 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1778 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1779 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1782 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1783 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1785 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1788 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1790 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1791 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1792 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1795 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1797 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1799 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1800 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1801 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1802 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1803 was also ASCII, for example.
1805 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1807 tag - no replacement.
1808 fseek - replaced by seek.
1809 list* - replaced by cons*.
1811 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1815 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1816 (define m (make-safe-module))
1817 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1818 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1819 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1821 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1823 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1824 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1825 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1827 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1829 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1830 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1831 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1832 from the issues related to the module system.
1834 *** New function: load-extension
1836 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1838 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1840 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1841 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1842 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1844 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1846 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1847 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1848 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1849 support dynamic linking).
1851 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1853 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1854 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1855 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1856 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1859 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1860 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1861 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1862 library and initialize it explicitly.
1864 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1865 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1867 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1869 (define-module (foo bar))
1871 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1873 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1875 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1876 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1878 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1879 (null-environment 5)
1880 (interaction-environment)
1886 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1888 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1889 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1890 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1891 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1893 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1894 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1895 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1896 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1897 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1898 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1899 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1900 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1901 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1902 one eval to the next.
1904 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1905 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1906 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1907 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1908 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1910 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1911 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1912 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1913 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1914 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1915 used in a lexical environment.
1917 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1918 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1919 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1920 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1921 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1922 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1924 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1926 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1927 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1928 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1929 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1930 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1932 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1933 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1934 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1936 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1937 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1939 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1940 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1941 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1943 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1944 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1946 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1947 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1948 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1949 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1952 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1953 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1954 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1955 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1957 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1958 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1959 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1961 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1962 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1963 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1964 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1965 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1967 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1969 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1970 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1971 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1973 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1974 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1975 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1977 See manual for more info.
1979 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1981 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1982 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1983 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1985 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1987 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1988 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1989 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1991 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1992 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1993 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1994 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1996 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1998 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1999 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
2001 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
2002 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
2003 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
2004 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
2005 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
2008 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
2009 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
2010 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
2011 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
2012 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
2013 successful and #f if it wasn't.
2015 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
2016 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
2017 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
2018 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
2019 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
2021 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
2022 objects are usually permanent.
2024 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
2025 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
2027 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
2029 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
2030 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
2033 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2037 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2042 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2044 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2045 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2046 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2047 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2049 ** New function `make-object-property'
2051 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2052 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2056 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2057 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2061 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2062 source properties eventually.
2064 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2066 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2067 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2068 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2070 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2071 will be removed in the next release.
2073 ** New define-module option: pure
2075 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2080 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2083 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2085 Export names NAME1 ...
2087 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2088 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2092 (define-module (foo)
2094 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2097 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2102 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2104 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2106 ** New function: port? X
2108 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2109 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2111 ** New function: file-port?
2113 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2115 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2117 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2118 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2119 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2120 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2121 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2123 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2125 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2126 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2127 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2128 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2129 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2132 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2134 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2135 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2136 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2137 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2140 ** New function: crypt password salt
2142 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2145 ** New function: chroot path
2147 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2149 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2151 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2154 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2156 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2158 ** New function: getpass prompt
2160 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2163 ** New function: flock file operation
2165 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2167 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2169 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2172 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2174 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2175 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2176 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2177 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2178 of the temporary file.
2180 ** New function: open-input-string string
2182 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2183 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2184 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2186 ** New function: open-output-string
2188 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2189 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2191 ** New function: get-output-string
2193 Return the contents of an output string port.
2195 ** New function: identity
2197 Return the argument.
2199 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2200 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2202 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2204 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2205 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2206 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2209 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2210 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2212 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2214 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2215 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2216 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2219 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2220 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2221 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2225 Use `identity' instead.
2231 ** Deprecated: return-it
2235 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2237 Use `string-length' instead.
2239 ** Deprecated: flags
2241 Use `logior' instead.
2243 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2245 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2246 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2247 port-for-each is more flexible.
2249 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2250 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2251 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2253 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2255 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2257 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2259 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2261 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2263 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2264 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2266 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2267 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2269 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2270 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2272 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2274 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2275 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2277 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2278 Use module system operations for all variables.
2280 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2282 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2285 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2287 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2288 The following bugs have been fixed:
2290 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2291 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2294 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2295 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2296 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2298 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2299 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2301 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2302 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2305 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2306 The expansion used to be like so:
2308 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2310 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2312 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2314 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2315 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2317 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2319 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2320 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2321 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2325 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2326 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2328 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2333 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2334 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2336 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2337 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2338 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2340 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2343 * Changes to the C interface
2345 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2347 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2348 with "_t". What a concept.
2350 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2352 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2354 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2358 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2359 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2361 *** C Functions removed
2363 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2364 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2365 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2366 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2367 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2368 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2369 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2371 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2373 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2375 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2377 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2379 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2380 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2382 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2384 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2387 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2389 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2391 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2393 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2394 Evaluation" in the manual.
2396 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2398 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2399 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2401 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2403 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2404 Constructors" in the manual.
2406 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2408 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2409 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2411 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2413 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2415 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2416 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2417 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2419 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2421 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2423 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2424 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2425 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2428 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2430 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2432 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2433 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2435 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2437 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2438 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2439 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2440 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2442 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2443 scm_primitive_property_ref
2444 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2445 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2447 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2448 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2450 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2452 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2453 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2454 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2455 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2457 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2459 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2460 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2461 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2462 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2463 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2464 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2465 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2467 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2468 scm_remember_upto_here
2470 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2472 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2474 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2475 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2477 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2479 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2481 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2483 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2485 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2487 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2488 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2489 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2490 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2491 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2492 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2494 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2496 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2498 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2499 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2500 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2502 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2504 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2505 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2506 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2508 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2510 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2511 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2514 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2517 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2518 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2521 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2523 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2525 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2527 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2529 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2531 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2533 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2534 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2535 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2536 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2537 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2538 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2539 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2540 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2541 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2542 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2543 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2544 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2545 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2546 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2547 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2549 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2550 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2551 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2552 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2553 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2554 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2555 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2556 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2557 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2558 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2559 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2560 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2561 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2562 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2563 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2564 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2565 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2566 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2567 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2568 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2569 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2570 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2571 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2572 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2573 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2574 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2575 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2576 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2577 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2579 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2581 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2583 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2584 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2586 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2588 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2590 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2592 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2594 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2596 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2598 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2600 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2602 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2605 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2606 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2608 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2610 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2612 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2614 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2616 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2618 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2620 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2622 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2625 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2627 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2629 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2631 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2632 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2634 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2635 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2637 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2639 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2640 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2641 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2643 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2645 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2647 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2648 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2650 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2651 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2652 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2653 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2655 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2656 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2657 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2659 Use the new ones from above instead.
2661 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2663 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2664 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2665 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2667 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2668 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2670 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2671 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2674 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2675 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2677 Use the new functions instead.
2679 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2682 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2684 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2686 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2689 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2691 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2694 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2696 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2699 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2700 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2701 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2703 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2705 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2706 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2708 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2709 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2710 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2711 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2714 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2716 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2717 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2718 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2719 inexact for an exact.
2721 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2722 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2723 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2726 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2727 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2728 accept an inexact argument.
2730 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2731 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2733 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2736 ** New number validation macros:
2737 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2741 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2743 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2744 scm_unprotect_object.
2746 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2748 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2750 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2753 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2755 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2759 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2761 * Changes to the distribution
2763 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2765 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2766 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2767 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2768 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2769 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2770 obtain these programs.
2771 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2772 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2774 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2775 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2776 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2777 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2778 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2780 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2781 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2782 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2783 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2787 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2790 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2791 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2792 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2793 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2795 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2797 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2799 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2800 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2802 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2803 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2805 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2806 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2808 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2809 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2810 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2811 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2813 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2815 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2819 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2820 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2822 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2824 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2825 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2827 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2828 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2829 number of objects of that kind.
2831 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2833 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2834 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2835 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2836 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2837 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2839 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2841 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2843 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2845 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2848 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2850 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2852 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2854 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2856 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2858 ** New command line option --debug
2860 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2862 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2864 ** New help facility
2866 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2867 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2868 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2869 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2870 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2871 (help) gives this text
2873 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2874 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2876 Examples: (help help)
2878 (help "output-string")
2880 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2882 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2884 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2885 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2888 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2889 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2890 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2893 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2894 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2895 use absolute filenames when possible.
2897 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2898 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2899 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2902 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2904 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2905 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2906 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2907 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2909 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2911 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2913 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2914 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2915 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2917 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2918 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2919 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2921 (read-enable 'positions)
2922 (debug-enable 'debug)
2924 ** Backtraces in scripts
2926 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2930 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2932 at the top of the script.
2934 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2935 The second enables backtraces.)
2937 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2939 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2940 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2941 substantially faster than before.
2943 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2944 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2946 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2947 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2949 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2951 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2952 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2953 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2955 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2956 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2957 when this hook is run in the future.
2959 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2960 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2962 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2964 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2965 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2968 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2969 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2970 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2972 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2973 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2975 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2976 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2978 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2979 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2980 in order not to need further allocation.)
2982 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2985 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2986 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2987 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2988 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2990 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2992 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2995 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2997 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
3000 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
3001 GC in percent of total heap size
3004 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
3005 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
3007 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
3009 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
3010 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
3012 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
3014 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
3015 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
3017 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
3019 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
3020 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
3024 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
3025 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
3027 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
3029 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3031 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
3033 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
3035 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3037 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3038 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3040 (simple-format port message . args)
3041 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3042 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3043 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3044 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3045 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3046 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3047 Does not add a trailing newline."
3049 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3051 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3052 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3054 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3055 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3057 ** Deprecated: list*
3059 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3061 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3063 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3064 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3066 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3067 is returned as result.
3069 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3071 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3073 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3075 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3076 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3079 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3081 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3083 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3084 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3086 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3088 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3090 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3092 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3094 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3096 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3098 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3100 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3101 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3102 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3104 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3107 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3109 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3110 the readability of argument checking.
3112 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3114 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3116 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3118 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3119 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3120 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3121 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3122 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3123 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3124 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3126 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3128 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3130 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3131 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3133 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3135 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3136 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3139 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3141 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3142 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3143 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3145 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3146 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3147 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3149 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3150 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3151 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3152 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3153 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3154 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3155 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3157 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3158 scm_end_input (object);
3159 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3160 ptob->flush (object);
3162 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3163 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3166 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3168 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3170 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3171 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3172 removed in a future version.
3174 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3176 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3177 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3178 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3179 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3181 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3182 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3184 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3187 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3189 in your configure.in.
3191 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3196 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3202 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3204 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3208 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3209 (define make-message string-append)
3211 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3213 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3217 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3222 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3226 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3228 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3229 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3231 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3233 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3234 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3235 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3236 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3237 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3238 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3240 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3241 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3242 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3244 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3245 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3246 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3249 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3250 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3251 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3252 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3253 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3255 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3256 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3257 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3258 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3259 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3260 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3261 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3263 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3265 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3266 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3267 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3269 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3270 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3271 KEY in the calling thread.
3273 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3274 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3275 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3276 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3277 associated with the key.
3279 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3281 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3282 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3284 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3286 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3287 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3288 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3290 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3292 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3293 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3295 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3297 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3299 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3300 returned is undefined.
3302 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3303 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3304 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3306 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3307 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3308 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3310 ** New C level GC hooks
3312 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3314 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3317 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3318 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3319 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3321 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3322 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3323 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3325 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3326 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3329 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3331 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3332 allocation parameters
3334 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3335 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3336 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3340 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3341 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3342 scm_default_max_segment_size
3344 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3346 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3347 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3349 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3351 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3352 object and count on the object being protected until
3353 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3355 The functions also have better time complexity.
3357 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3358 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3359 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3360 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3361 are no longer needed.
3363 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3365 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3366 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3367 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3368 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3370 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3372 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3374 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3376 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3377 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3378 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3379 until this issue has been settled.
3381 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3383 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3385 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3388 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3390 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3392 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3393 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3394 descriptors were checked.
3396 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3397 atomically written to a pipe.
3399 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3400 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3401 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3402 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3403 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3404 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3405 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3408 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3409 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3410 is changed without calling tzset.
3412 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3414 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3415 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3416 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3418 (define write-network-long
3419 (lambda (value port)
3420 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3421 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3422 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3424 (define read-network-long
3426 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3427 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3428 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3430 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3431 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3433 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3434 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3435 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3436 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3438 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3439 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3440 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3441 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3445 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3447 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3451 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3452 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3453 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3459 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3460 for a description of available commands.
3462 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3463 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3464 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3466 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3468 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3469 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3471 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3473 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3475 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3476 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3477 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3478 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3479 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3480 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3483 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3485 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3486 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3487 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3488 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3490 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3491 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3493 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3495 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3497 ** Readline support has changed again.
3499 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3500 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3501 to activate readline is now
3503 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3506 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3508 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3509 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3510 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3513 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3514 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3515 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3518 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3519 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3520 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3521 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3522 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3523 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3525 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3526 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3528 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3530 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3531 object it receives is the same string passed to
3532 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3533 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3534 string, not the suffix.
3536 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3537 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3538 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3540 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3542 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3543 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3544 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3545 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3548 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3550 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3552 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3553 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3554 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3555 appear from left to right.
3557 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3560 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3562 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3563 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3565 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3569 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3571 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3573 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3575 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3576 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3577 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3579 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3581 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3583 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3585 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3588 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3590 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3591 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3592 mentioning it here anyway.
3594 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3596 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3597 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3598 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3599 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3602 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3604 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3606 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3608 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3609 otherwise return #f.
3611 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3613 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3614 returned by `opendir'.
3616 ** New function: using-readline?
3618 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3620 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3622 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3623 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3625 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3627 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3629 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3630 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3631 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3633 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3635 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3636 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3638 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3640 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3641 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3642 documentation slots are not yet used.
3644 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3646 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3647 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3648 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3653 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3654 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3655 (string-append x y))
3657 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3658 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3660 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3661 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3662 be made in a clean way.]
3664 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3666 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3668 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3670 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3671 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3673 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3675 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3677 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3679 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3681 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3682 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3683 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3684 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3687 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3689 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3691 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3693 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3695 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3696 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3698 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3700 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3702 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3704 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3706 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3707 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3708 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3709 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3710 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3711 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3713 This should not make any difference for most users.
3715 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3717 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3718 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3720 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3722 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3723 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3724 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3725 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3726 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3728 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3730 It is now replaced by:
3732 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3734 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3735 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3737 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3739 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3740 This might change when we get the new module system.
3742 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3746 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3748 * Changes to mailing lists
3750 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3752 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3755 * Changes to the distribution
3757 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3759 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3760 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3761 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3762 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3763 you explicitly specify it.
3765 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3766 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3767 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3768 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3769 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3772 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3773 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3774 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3775 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3777 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3778 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3779 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3782 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3784 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3787 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3789 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3791 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3792 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3793 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3794 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3796 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3797 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3800 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3802 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3803 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3804 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3805 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3806 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3807 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3808 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3809 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3821 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3822 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3823 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3824 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3825 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3830 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3831 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3839 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3844 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3845 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3848 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3849 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3850 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3851 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3853 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3855 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3857 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3858 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3860 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3862 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3864 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3865 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3867 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3870 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3872 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3874 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3876 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3878 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3880 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3882 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3883 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3884 when the hook was created.
3886 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3887 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3888 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3889 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3890 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3891 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3892 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3893 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3894 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3896 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3897 the dlopen family of functions.
3899 ** New function `provided?'
3901 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3902 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3903 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3904 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3906 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3908 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3909 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3910 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3911 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3914 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3915 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3916 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3917 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3919 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3920 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3921 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3924 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3925 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3926 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3927 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3928 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3929 but with the flag set.
3931 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3933 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3934 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3936 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3937 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3938 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3939 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3940 available Scheme format implementations.
3942 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3943 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3944 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3945 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3946 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3947 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3948 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3949 output is to the current error port if available by the
3950 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3953 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3954 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3955 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3956 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3957 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3958 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3959 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3960 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3962 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3963 be executed at a time.
3966 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3968 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3969 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3970 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3972 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3973 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3974 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3975 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3976 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3977 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3978 general form of a directive is:
3980 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3982 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3984 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3986 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3987 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3988 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3991 Any (print as `display' does).
3995 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3999 S-expression (print as `write' does).
4003 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
4009 print number sign always.
4012 print comma separated.
4014 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
4020 print number sign always.
4023 print comma separated.
4025 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
4031 print number sign always.
4034 print comma separated.
4036 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4042 print number sign always.
4045 print comma separated.
4047 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4052 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4056 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4059 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4062 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4065 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4070 prints `y' and `ies'.
4073 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4076 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4081 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4085 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4088 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4089 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4091 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4094 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4095 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4097 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4100 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4102 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4104 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4107 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4109 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4111 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4114 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4117 The sign appears before the padding.
4125 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4127 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4132 print N page separators.
4142 newline is ignored, white space left.
4145 newline is left, white space ignored.
4150 relative tabulation.
4156 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4158 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4161 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4163 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4166 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4169 converts by `string-upcase'.
4172 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4174 jumps N arguments forward.
4177 jumps 1 argument backward.
4180 jumps N arguments backward.
4183 jumps to the 0th argument.
4186 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4188 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4189 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4191 take argument from N.
4194 true test conditional.
4197 if-else-then conditional.
4203 default clause follows.
4206 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4208 at most N iterations.
4211 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4214 args from the rest of arguments.
4217 args from the rest args (lists).
4228 aborts if N <= M <= K
4230 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4233 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4236 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4242 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4244 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4246 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4247 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4248 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4249 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4250 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4251 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4255 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4259 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4265 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4268 Print a `#\space' character
4270 print N `#\space' characters.
4273 Print a `#\tab' character
4275 print N `#\tab' characters.
4278 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4279 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4280 must be a positive decimal number.
4283 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4284 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4285 be processed by `read'.
4288 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4289 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4290 be processed by `read'.
4293 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4296 prints format version.
4299 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4300 and format it accordingly.
4302 *** Configuration Variables
4304 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4305 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4306 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4307 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4310 format:symbol-case-conv
4311 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4312 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4313 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4314 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4315 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4317 format:iobj-case-conv
4318 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4319 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4322 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4325 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4331 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4332 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4333 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4334 `format' padding style.
4337 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4338 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4339 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4340 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4344 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4345 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4346 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4349 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4350 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4351 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4352 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4353 parameters or modifiers)).
4356 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4358 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4360 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4361 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4363 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4364 string-downcase! functions.
4366 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4367 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4369 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4372 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4375 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4376 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4378 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4380 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4381 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4383 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4384 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4385 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4386 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4387 would if STRING were input.
4389 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4391 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4392 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4393 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4394 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4397 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4399 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4400 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4403 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4405 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4406 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4408 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4409 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4411 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4412 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4413 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4414 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4416 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4417 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4419 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4420 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4421 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4423 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4424 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4426 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4427 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4428 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4429 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4430 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4432 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4433 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4434 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4435 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4436 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4437 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4439 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4440 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4441 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4444 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4445 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4446 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4447 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4448 the following grammar:
4449 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4450 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4451 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4452 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4453 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4454 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4455 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4456 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4457 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4458 last option in its combination)
4460 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4461 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4462 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4463 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4465 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4466 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4467 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4469 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4470 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4471 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4473 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4474 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4475 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4476 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4477 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4478 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4479 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4480 ordinary argument strings.
4482 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4483 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4484 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4485 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4487 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4488 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4490 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4491 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4492 - a required option is omitted
4493 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4494 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4495 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4496 - an option predicate fails
4501 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4504 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4505 (verbose (required? #f)
4508 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4509 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4510 (predicate ,string?))))
4512 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4513 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4515 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4516 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4517 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4518 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4521 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4523 It will be removed in a few releases.
4525 ** New syntax: lambda*
4526 ** New syntax: define*
4527 ** New syntax: define*-public
4528 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4529 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4530 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4532 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4533 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4534 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4535 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4536 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4538 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4539 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4540 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4542 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4544 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4545 and examples for `lambda*':
4548 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4550 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4551 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4552 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4553 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4554 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4555 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4556 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4557 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4559 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4561 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4562 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4563 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4564 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4566 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4567 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4568 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4569 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4570 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4571 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4572 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4573 and until the procedure is called.
4575 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4577 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4578 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4579 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4580 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4581 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4582 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4583 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4584 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4585 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4586 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4588 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4589 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4590 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4591 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4594 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4596 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4597 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4598 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4599 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4601 ** New syntax: and-let*
4602 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4604 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4605 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4606 (<variable> <expression>)
4609 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4610 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4611 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4614 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4615 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4616 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4617 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4618 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4619 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4620 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4622 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4623 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4624 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4625 shadow earlier bindings.
4627 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4629 ** New sorting functions
4631 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4632 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4633 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4634 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4636 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4637 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4640 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4641 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4642 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4644 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4645 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4646 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4647 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4649 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4650 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4651 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4652 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4653 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4656 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4657 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4658 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4659 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4660 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4661 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4663 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4664 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4665 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4667 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4668 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4669 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4672 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4673 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4674 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4676 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4677 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4679 ** New built-in random number support
4681 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4682 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4683 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4684 returned have a uniform distribution.
4686 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4687 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4688 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4689 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4690 effect of the `random' operation.
4692 *** New variable: *random-state*
4693 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4694 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4695 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4696 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4697 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4700 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4701 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4702 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4703 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4704 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4706 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4707 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4708 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4709 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4710 initialized using SEED.
4712 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4713 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4714 range between 0 and 1.
4716 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4717 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4718 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4719 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4720 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4721 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4722 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4724 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4725 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4726 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4727 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4728 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4729 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4731 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4732 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4733 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4734 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4736 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4737 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4738 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4739 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4741 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4742 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4743 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4745 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4747 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4750 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4751 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4754 ** New function: make-guardian
4755 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4756 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4757 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4758 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4759 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4761 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4762 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4763 one object if at all.
4765 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4766 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4767 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4769 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4770 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4771 read again in last-in first-out order.
4773 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4774 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4776 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4778 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4779 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4780 file position is used.
4782 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4783 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4784 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4786 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4787 redefined using seek.
4789 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4790 size is not supplied.
4792 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4793 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4795 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4796 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4798 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4800 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4801 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4802 and returns the contents as a single string.
4804 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4805 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4806 lists in serial order.
4808 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4809 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4810 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4812 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4813 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4814 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4815 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4817 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4818 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4819 and #f if an error occured.
4821 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4823 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4824 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4825 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4826 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4828 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4830 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4833 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4835 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4838 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4842 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4843 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4845 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4846 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4850 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4852 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4854 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4855 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4857 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4859 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4860 might change when we get the new module system.
4862 ** The smob interface
4864 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4865 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4867 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4869 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4873 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4874 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4875 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4876 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4877 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4878 will be freed by the default free function.
4880 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4881 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4882 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4883 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4885 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4886 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4887 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4888 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4890 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4892 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4893 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4897 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4898 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4899 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4901 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4902 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4903 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4904 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4906 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4907 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4908 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4910 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4911 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4912 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4913 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4915 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4916 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4917 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4919 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4923 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4925 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4926 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4927 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4929 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4930 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4931 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4933 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4934 a string port's buffer.
4936 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4937 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4938 function pointers which together define the current random number
4939 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4940 number library functions.
4942 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4945 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4946 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4949 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4950 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4952 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4953 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4955 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4956 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4959 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4960 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4961 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4962 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4964 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4965 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4966 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4967 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4968 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4969 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4970 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4972 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4973 by libguile and the application.
4975 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4976 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4977 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4978 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4980 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4981 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4983 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4984 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4985 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4987 ** Random number library functions
4988 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4989 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4990 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4992 The default random state is stored in:
4994 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4995 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4996 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
5001 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
5003 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
5004 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
5005 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
5006 isn't a random state.
5008 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
5009 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
5011 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
5012 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
5013 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
5014 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
5016 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5017 Return 32 random bits.
5019 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5020 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
5022 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5023 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
5025 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5026 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
5028 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
5029 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5031 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
5032 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5033 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5037 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5039 * Changes to the distribution
5041 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5042 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5043 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5046 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5047 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5048 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5050 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5051 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5052 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5053 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5056 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5057 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5058 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5060 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5062 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5064 *** Function: batch-mode?
5066 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5069 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5071 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5072 case has not been implemented.
5074 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5075 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5076 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5079 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5080 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5082 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5084 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5086 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5088 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5089 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5092 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5093 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5094 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5095 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5098 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5100 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5101 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5102 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5103 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5104 find those libraries.
5106 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5107 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5110 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5112 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5113 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5114 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5115 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5117 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5118 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5119 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5123 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5125 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5126 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5127 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5130 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5131 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5132 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5133 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5135 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5136 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5139 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5140 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5141 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5142 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5143 compiler where to find the libraries.
5145 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5146 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5147 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5149 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5150 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5151 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5152 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5153 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5157 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5159 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5160 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5161 internationalization support.
5163 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5164 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5165 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5166 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5167 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5169 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5170 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5171 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5172 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5173 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5175 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5176 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5177 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5178 any GNU mirror site.
5180 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5182 ** New function: add-history STRING
5183 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5184 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5185 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5187 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5189 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5190 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5191 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5194 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5195 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5196 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5198 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5200 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5203 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5204 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5207 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5208 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5209 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5210 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5211 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5212 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5214 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5215 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5216 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5217 of the form mentioned above.
5219 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5220 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5221 returned in the special `rest' list.
5223 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5224 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5226 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5228 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5230 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5232 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5233 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5234 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5235 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5236 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5237 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5238 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5239 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5242 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5244 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5246 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5247 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5250 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5251 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5252 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5256 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5257 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5258 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5259 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5260 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5261 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5262 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5263 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5266 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5268 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5269 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5270 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5272 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5274 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5275 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5277 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5278 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5279 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5281 Why do we have this function?
5282 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5283 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5284 primitive, and display it differently, and
5285 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5286 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5289 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5290 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5293 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5294 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5295 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5296 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5298 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5299 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5302 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5303 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5305 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5307 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5308 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5309 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5310 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5311 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5312 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5313 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5316 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5318 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5319 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5321 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5322 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5323 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5324 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5325 properly continue the print chain.
5327 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5328 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5329 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5330 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5331 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5332 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5333 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5334 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5336 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5337 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5338 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5339 safest to not check for these pairs.
5341 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5342 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5343 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5344 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5346 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5348 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5349 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5351 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5353 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5355 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5356 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5357 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5359 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5360 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5361 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5363 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5364 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5365 the following functions and macros:
5367 Function: make-fluid
5369 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5370 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5371 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5372 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5373 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5375 Function: fluid? OBJ
5377 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5379 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5380 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5382 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5383 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5385 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5387 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5388 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5389 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5390 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5391 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5392 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5393 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5395 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5397 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5398 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5399 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5400 should evaluate to a fluid.
5402 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5404 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5405 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5406 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5407 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5408 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5410 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5413 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5415 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5417 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5419 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5422 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5423 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5424 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5425 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5426 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5429 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5430 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5431 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5433 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5434 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5435 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5437 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5438 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5439 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5440 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5442 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5443 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5444 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5445 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5447 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5448 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5449 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5450 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5452 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5453 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5454 their revealed counts set to zero.
5456 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5457 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5459 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5460 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5462 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5463 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5465 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5466 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5467 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5469 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5470 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5471 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5473 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5474 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5475 default environment inherited by child processes.
5477 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5478 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5479 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5481 The return value is unspecified.
5483 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5484 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5485 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5486 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5487 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5489 The return value is unspecified.
5491 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5492 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5500 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5501 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5504 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5507 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5508 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5509 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5511 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5512 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5513 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5514 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5517 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5518 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5520 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5521 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5522 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5523 the `environ' procedure.
5525 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5526 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5529 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5530 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5532 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5533 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5534 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5535 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5537 *** procedure: times
5538 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5539 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5540 return a selected component:
5543 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5547 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5550 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5554 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5555 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5559 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5560 terminated child processes.
5562 ** Removed: list-length
5563 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5564 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5566 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5568 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5570 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5572 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5573 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5574 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5575 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5577 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5578 extra complexity it introduces.
5580 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5581 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5583 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5584 variable to any non-empty value.
5586 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5587 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5589 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5591 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5592 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5594 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5596 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5597 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5599 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5601 ** vector handling routines
5603 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5604 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5605 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5606 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5607 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5609 ** pair and list routines
5611 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5614 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5616 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5619 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5621 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5623 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5624 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5625 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5626 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5627 site-specific initialization code.
5629 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5630 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5631 initialization processes.
5633 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5634 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5635 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5636 initialized properly.
5638 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5639 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5640 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5642 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5643 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5644 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5645 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5646 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5648 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5650 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5651 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5652 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5653 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5654 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5656 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5657 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5658 which look like this:
5661 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5663 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5664 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5667 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5668 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5671 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5673 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5674 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5675 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5677 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5678 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5679 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5680 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5681 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5683 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5684 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5686 int (*free) (SCM port);
5687 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5688 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5689 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5693 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5694 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5695 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5697 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5700 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5701 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5702 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5704 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5705 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5706 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5709 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5713 struct timeval *timeout);
5715 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5716 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5717 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5718 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5719 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5720 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5722 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5723 scm_catch_body_t body,
5725 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5728 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5729 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5730 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5731 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5732 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5733 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5735 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5737 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5740 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5741 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5742 spawning threads from application C code.
5744 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5745 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5746 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5747 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5748 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5749 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5751 ** Removed functions:
5753 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5754 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5756 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5758 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5759 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5761 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5763 ** mbstrings are now removed
5765 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5766 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5768 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5770 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5771 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5772 their new names and arguments:
5774 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5775 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5776 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5777 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5780 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5782 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5784 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5787 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5789 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5790 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5791 pass a #f arg to catch.
5793 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5795 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5796 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5799 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5800 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5801 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5802 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5803 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5804 reclaim its storage.
5806 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5807 worrying that some other function you call will call
5808 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5809 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5810 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5811 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5814 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5816 * Changes to the distribution
5818 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5819 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5822 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5823 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5825 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5826 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5828 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5830 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5831 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5832 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5834 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5836 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5837 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5838 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5839 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5840 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5841 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5843 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5844 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5845 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5848 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5849 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5850 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5851 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5853 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5854 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5855 libraries to your link command:
5857 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5858 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5859 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5860 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5862 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5863 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5864 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5866 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5868 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5869 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5872 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5874 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5875 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5876 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5877 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5878 searched is system dependent.
5880 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5882 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5884 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5886 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5887 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5889 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5891 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5892 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5893 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5894 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5895 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5898 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5900 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5901 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5902 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5903 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5904 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5906 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5908 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5909 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5911 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5913 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5914 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5915 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5918 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5920 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5921 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5922 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5923 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5925 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5926 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5928 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5930 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5931 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5933 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5935 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5936 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5944 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5946 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5947 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5948 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5949 a more informative way.
5951 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5952 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5953 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5954 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5955 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5956 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5958 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5959 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5962 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5963 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5964 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5967 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5968 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5969 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5970 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5971 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5972 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5974 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5975 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5976 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5977 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5980 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5981 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5982 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5983 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5984 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5985 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5987 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5988 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5989 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5990 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5991 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5993 *** regexp functions
5995 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5996 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5997 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5999 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
6000 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
6001 with SCSH regular expressions.
6003 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
6004 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
6005 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
6006 position of STR at which to begin matching.
6008 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
6009 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
6010 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
6011 `string-match' returns `#f'.
6013 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
6014 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
6015 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
6016 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
6017 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
6018 match strings against the compiled regexp.
6020 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
6021 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
6022 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
6023 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
6024 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
6026 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6028 **** Constant: regexp/extended
6029 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
6030 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
6031 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
6033 **** Constant: regexp/icase
6034 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
6035 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6037 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6038 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6040 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6043 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6044 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6045 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6047 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6048 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6049 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6051 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6052 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6053 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6054 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6055 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6058 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6060 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6061 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6062 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6063 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6064 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6065 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6067 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6068 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6069 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6071 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6072 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6075 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6076 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6078 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6079 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6080 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6081 may be one of the following arguments:
6083 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6085 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6087 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6088 the regexp match is written.
6090 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6091 following the regexp match is written.
6093 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6094 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6097 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6098 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6099 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6100 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6101 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6102 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6104 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6107 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6108 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6109 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6110 written out to PORT.
6112 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6113 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6114 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6115 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6116 will return after processing a single match.
6118 *** Match Structures
6120 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6121 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6122 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6123 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6124 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6125 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6128 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6129 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6130 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6131 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6132 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6134 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6135 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6136 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6138 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6139 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6140 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6141 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6142 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6144 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6145 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6147 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6148 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6150 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6151 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6153 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6154 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6156 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6157 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6158 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6159 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6161 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6162 Return the original TARGET string.
6164 *** Backslash Escapes
6166 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6167 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6168 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6169 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6170 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6171 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6173 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6174 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6175 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6176 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6177 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6178 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6179 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6180 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6182 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6183 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6184 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6185 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6186 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6187 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6188 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6190 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6191 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6192 return the resulting string.
6194 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6195 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6196 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6197 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6198 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6199 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6200 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6201 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6202 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6203 translated to the single character `*'.
6205 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6206 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6207 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6208 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6209 consecutive backslashes:
6211 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6213 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6214 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6215 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6217 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6218 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6219 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6220 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6221 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6222 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6224 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6226 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6227 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6228 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6229 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6230 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6231 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6232 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6233 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6234 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6235 cumbersome escape syntax.
6237 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6239 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6241 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6243 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6246 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6248 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6250 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6253 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6254 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6255 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6256 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6257 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6259 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6260 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6261 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6262 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6263 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6264 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6265 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6268 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6269 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6270 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6273 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6274 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6276 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6277 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6278 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6279 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6280 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6281 installed, you can say:
6283 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6286 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6288 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6289 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6290 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6291 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6292 new dynamic roots and threads.
6295 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6297 * Changes to the distribution.
6299 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6301 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6302 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6303 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6304 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6305 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6306 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6307 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6308 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6310 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6313 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6314 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6319 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6321 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6322 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6324 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6325 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6326 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6327 the (command-line) function.
6328 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6329 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6330 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6332 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6333 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6334 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6335 command line arguments
6336 -ds do -s script at this point
6337 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6338 -h, --help display this help and exit
6339 -v, --version display version information and exit
6340 \ read arguments from following script lines
6342 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6343 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6345 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6348 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6352 (main (command-line))
6354 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6356 ekko a speckled gecko
6358 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6359 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6360 following list of command-line arguments:
6362 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6364 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6365 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6366 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6367 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6368 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6370 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6372 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6374 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6375 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6378 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6379 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6380 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6381 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6383 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6384 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6385 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6386 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6388 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6392 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6396 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6398 ekko a speckled gecko
6400 Unix expands this into
6402 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6404 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6405 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6407 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6409 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6410 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6412 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6413 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6414 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6415 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6416 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6417 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6418 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6419 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6420 it only terminates the argument list.)
6421 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6422 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6423 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6424 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6425 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6426 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6427 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6428 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6430 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6432 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6433 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6434 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6435 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6436 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6438 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6439 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6440 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6442 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6444 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6445 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6446 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6447 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6450 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6451 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6452 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6454 * Changes to Scheme functions
6456 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6457 and disabled by default.
6459 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6460 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6461 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6462 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6464 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6466 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6468 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6469 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6471 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6472 (read-set! keywords #f)
6474 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6475 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6476 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6479 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6480 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6481 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6484 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6485 support for Scheme functions.
6487 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6488 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6489 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6490 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6493 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6494 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6495 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6498 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6499 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6500 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6503 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6504 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6505 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6506 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6507 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6508 display the result as a prompt.
6509 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6511 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6512 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6513 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6516 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6517 procedure of zero arguments.
6519 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6520 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6521 argument is bound in the current module.
6523 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6524 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6525 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6526 public bindings into the current module.
6528 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6529 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6531 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6532 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6534 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6535 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6537 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6538 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6540 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6541 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6543 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6544 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6545 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6546 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6547 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6549 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6550 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6551 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6552 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6554 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6557 ** Changes to I/O functions
6559 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6560 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6561 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6563 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6564 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6565 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6567 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6568 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6570 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6571 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6572 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6573 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6575 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6577 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6578 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6580 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6581 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6582 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6583 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6584 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6587 'trim omit delimiter from result
6588 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6589 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6590 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6592 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6594 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6595 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6597 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6598 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6599 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6600 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6601 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6603 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6604 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6605 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6607 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6608 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6609 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6610 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6612 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6613 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6615 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6616 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6618 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6620 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6621 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6622 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6623 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6624 a delimiting character.
6625 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6627 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6628 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6629 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6630 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6631 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6632 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6634 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6635 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6637 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6638 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6639 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6641 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6642 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6643 the array to read and write.
6645 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6646 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6649 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6651 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6654 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6655 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6656 Values for COMMAND are:
6658 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6659 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6660 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6661 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6662 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6663 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6664 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6665 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6667 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6669 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6670 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6671 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6672 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6673 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6674 corresponding return set will be the same.
6676 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6679 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6680 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6681 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6682 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6683 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6684 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6685 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6686 special file being created.
6688 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6689 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6691 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6692 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6693 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6694 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6695 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6696 and originating address.
6698 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6699 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6700 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6702 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6705 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6706 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6709 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6710 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6711 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6712 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6713 this function returns #f.
6715 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6716 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6717 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6720 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6721 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6722 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6725 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6726 a valid STATUS value.
6728 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6730 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6731 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6733 Component Accessor Setter
6734 ========================= ============ ============
6735 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6736 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6737 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6738 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6739 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6740 year tm:year set-tm:year
6741 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6742 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6743 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6744 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6745 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6747 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6748 describing the host system:
6751 ============================================== ================
6752 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6753 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6754 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6755 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6756 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6758 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6759 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6760 system's user database:
6763 ====================== =================
6764 user name passwd:name
6765 user password passwd:passwd
6768 real name passwd:gecos
6769 home directory passwd:dir
6770 shell program passwd:shell
6772 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6773 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6774 system's group database:
6777 ======================= ============
6778 group name group:name
6779 group password group:passwd
6781 group members group:mem
6783 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6784 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6788 ========================= ===============
6789 official name of host hostent:name
6790 alias list hostent:aliases
6791 host address type hostent:addrtype
6792 length of address hostent:length
6793 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6795 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6796 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6800 ========================= ===============
6801 official name of net netent:name
6802 alias list netent:aliases
6803 net number type netent:addrtype
6804 net number netent:net
6806 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6807 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6811 ========================= ===============
6812 official protocol name protoent:name
6813 alias list protoent:aliases
6814 protocol number protoent:proto
6816 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6817 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6821 ========================= ===============
6822 official service name servent:name
6823 alias list servent:aliases
6824 port number servent:port
6825 protocol to use servent:proto
6827 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6828 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6831 ======================================== ===============
6832 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6833 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6834 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6835 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6837 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6838 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6839 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6841 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6842 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6844 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6845 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6847 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6848 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6850 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6852 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6854 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6855 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6856 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6858 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6859 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6860 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6861 return the remaining characters as a string.
6863 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6864 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6865 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6867 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6869 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6871 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6874 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6877 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6878 and returns the array
6880 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6881 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6882 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6884 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6886 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6887 symbol's value from C code:
6889 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6890 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6891 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6892 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6894 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6895 without assigning them a value.
6897 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6898 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6899 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6901 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6902 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6903 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6905 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6906 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6908 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6909 doesn't actually care about that.
6911 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6912 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6913 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6915 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6916 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6917 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6918 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6919 which we have just created and initialized.
6921 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6922 should one occur. We call it like this:
6923 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6925 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6926 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6927 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6928 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6929 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6930 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6933 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6934 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6935 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6936 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6937 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6938 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6939 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6942 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6943 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6944 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6945 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6946 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6949 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6950 scm_internal_catch, except:
6952 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6953 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6954 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6955 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6958 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6959 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6960 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6962 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6963 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6964 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6965 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6968 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6969 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6970 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6972 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6973 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6974 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6975 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6976 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6978 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6979 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6980 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6982 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6983 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6984 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6986 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6987 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6989 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6990 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6991 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6994 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6995 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6996 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6997 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6998 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6999 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
7000 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
7003 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
7004 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
7006 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
7007 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
7008 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
7009 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
7010 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
7013 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
7014 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
7016 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
7017 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
7020 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
7021 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
7023 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7026 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
7027 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
7028 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
7029 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
7030 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
7031 given the following arguments:
7033 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7035 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7037 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7039 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7042 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7043 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7044 command-line arguments.
7046 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7047 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7048 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7049 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7050 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7051 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7054 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7057 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7058 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7060 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7061 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7063 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7064 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7065 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7066 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7068 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7069 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7071 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7072 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7073 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7074 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7076 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7077 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7079 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7080 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7082 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7084 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7085 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7086 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7089 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7090 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7092 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7093 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7098 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7101 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7103 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7104 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7105 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7106 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7108 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7110 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7112 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7113 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7114 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7115 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7116 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7117 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7118 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7119 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7120 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7121 for more information.
7123 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7124 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7126 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7127 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7128 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7129 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7130 following two lines at the top of the file:
7132 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7135 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7136 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7137 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7139 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7141 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7143 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7146 (display (car args))
7147 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7149 (loop (cdr args)))))
7152 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7153 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7154 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7155 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7156 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7157 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7161 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7164 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7167 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7169 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7170 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7171 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7172 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7173 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7176 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7177 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7178 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7179 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7180 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7183 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7186 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7187 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7188 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7191 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7192 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7193 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7195 to see a backtrace, and
7196 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7197 to see them by default.
7201 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7203 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7205 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7206 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7209 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7210 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7211 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7212 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7215 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7216 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7217 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7218 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7219 functions which inspired them.
7221 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7222 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7226 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7228 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7230 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7231 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7234 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7235 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7236 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7238 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7239 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7240 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7241 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7242 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7244 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7246 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7247 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7248 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7251 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7254 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7256 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7257 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7258 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7259 above should serve their purposes.
7261 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7262 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7263 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7264 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7266 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7269 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7270 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7271 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7272 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7274 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7275 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7276 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7277 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7279 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7280 for the `read' function.
7283 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7284 to that of `integer?'.
7286 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7287 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7289 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7290 it simply returns the object's property list.
7292 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7293 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7294 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7295 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7297 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7299 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7302 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7304 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7305 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7307 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7309 void (*main_func) (),
7312 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7313 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7314 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7315 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7316 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7318 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7319 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7320 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7321 know which arguments have been processed.
7323 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7324 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7325 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7326 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7327 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7329 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7330 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7331 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7332 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7333 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7334 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7335 people from making that mistake.
7337 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7338 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7340 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7342 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7346 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7349 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7350 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7351 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7352 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7355 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7356 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7357 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7358 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7361 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7362 have been added to the Guile library.
7364 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7365 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7366 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7369 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7370 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7371 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7373 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7374 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7375 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7376 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7377 argument from the list.
7380 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7383 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7384 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7386 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7387 to a Scheme port object.
7389 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7390 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7395 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7397 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7398 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7399 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7400 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7401 code as a special datatype.
7403 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7404 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7405 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7406 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7407 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7410 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7411 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7412 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7413 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7414 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7416 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7419 Copyright information:
7421 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7423 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7424 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7425 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7426 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7428 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7429 of this document, or of portions of it,
7430 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7431 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7436 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"