1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
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12 * New modules (see the manual for details)
14 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', multithreading support
15 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
21 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
22 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
24 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
25 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
27 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
28 This slightly improves program startup times.
30 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
31 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
33 * Changes to the C interface
35 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
37 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
39 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
42 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
43 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
47 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
49 * New features (see the manual for details)
51 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
53 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
55 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
56 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
57 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
59 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
61 * Changes to the distribution
63 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
65 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
66 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
70 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
71 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
72 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
73 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
74 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
75 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
76 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
77 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
78 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
79 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
80 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
81 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
82 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
83 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
87 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
89 * Infrastructure changes
91 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
93 The new repository can be accessed using
94 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
95 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
97 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
99 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
101 * New modules (see the manual for details)
105 * New features (see the manual for details)
107 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
108 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
109 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
111 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
112 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
113 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
114 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
116 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
118 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
119 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
120 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
124 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
125 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
127 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
128 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
130 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
131 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
133 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
134 lead to a stack overflow.
136 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
137 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
138 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
139 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
140 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
141 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
142 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
143 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
144 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
145 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
146 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
147 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
148 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
149 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
150 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
151 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
153 * Changes to the distribution
157 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
158 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
161 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
165 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
166 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
167 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
168 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
169 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
170 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
171 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
172 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
173 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
174 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
175 system and library calls.
176 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
177 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
178 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
179 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
180 uniform vectors on AIX.
181 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
182 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
183 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
184 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
185 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
187 * New modules (see the manual for details)
191 * Documentation fixes and improvements
193 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
195 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
196 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
198 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
200 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
202 * Changes to the distribution
204 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
206 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
207 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
208 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
210 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
212 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
215 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
217 * New modules (see the manual for details)
224 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
225 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
226 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
227 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
228 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
229 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
230 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
232 * Implementation improvements
234 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
235 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
239 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
241 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
243 ** set-program-arguments
248 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
249 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
250 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
251 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
252 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
253 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
255 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
256 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
257 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
258 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
259 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
260 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
261 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
262 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
263 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
264 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
265 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
266 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
267 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
268 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
269 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
270 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
273 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
275 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
277 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
279 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
280 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
281 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
282 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
283 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
284 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
290 * New `(ice-9 i18n)' module (see the manual for details)
294 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
296 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
298 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
300 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
302 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
304 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
306 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
307 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
308 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
310 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
312 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
314 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
315 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
317 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
319 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
320 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
322 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
324 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
326 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
328 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
330 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
332 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
334 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
336 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
338 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
340 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
341 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
342 file was on a different device.
345 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
347 * Changes to the distribution
349 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
351 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
353 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
355 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
357 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
359 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
362 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
364 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
365 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
366 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
367 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
368 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
369 items like the versioned share directory name
370 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
372 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
373 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
374 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
375 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
376 with each micro release during a stable series.
378 ** Thread implementation has changed.
380 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
381 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
382 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
383 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
384 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
387 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
388 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
389 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
390 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
393 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
394 in which case "null" threads are used.
396 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
397 "Blocking", and others.
399 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
401 This is a milder form of deprecation.
403 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
404 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
405 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
406 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
407 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
409 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
410 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
412 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
414 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
415 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
417 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
420 This SRFI is always available.
422 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
424 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
425 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
426 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
427 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
430 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
432 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
433 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
434 parameters without currying.
436 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
438 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
439 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
441 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
442 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
445 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
446 with a renaming import, for example.
448 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
450 The official version is good enough now.
452 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
454 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
455 provided. Use 'make html'.
457 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
459 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
460 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
461 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
462 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
464 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
466 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
469 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
471 ** New command line option `-L'.
473 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
475 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
477 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
478 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
480 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
482 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
483 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
485 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
487 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
488 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
491 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
494 (define-module (demo)
498 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
501 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
503 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
505 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
506 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
507 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
509 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
511 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
512 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
514 ** New function hashx-remove!
516 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
518 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
519 barriers and dynamic states.
521 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
522 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
523 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
526 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
527 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
528 Barriers" in the manual.
530 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
531 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
533 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
535 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
536 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
537 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
540 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
542 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
543 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
545 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
546 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
547 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
549 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
550 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
552 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
553 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
554 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
556 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
557 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
558 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
561 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
562 substrings and read-only strings.
564 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
565 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
568 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
570 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
579 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
580 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
581 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
583 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
584 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
585 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
588 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
589 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
592 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
594 See the manual for details.
596 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
598 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
601 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
603 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
604 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
605 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
606 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
608 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
609 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
610 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
613 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
615 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
616 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
627 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
631 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
636 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
640 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
644 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
647 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
648 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
649 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
650 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
652 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
653 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
656 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
659 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
663 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
665 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
666 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
667 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
670 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
673 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
675 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
678 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
679 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
687 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
688 has been detected is to
690 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
691 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
692 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
695 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
698 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
700 to your .guile init file.
702 ** New define-module option: :replace
704 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
707 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
708 for the core binding `format'.
710 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
712 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
713 a prefix to all imported bindings.
716 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
718 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
721 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
723 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
724 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
725 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
727 ** New function: effective-version
729 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
730 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
731 to the distribution" above.
733 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
735 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
736 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
738 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
740 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
741 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
743 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
745 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
746 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
749 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
751 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
753 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
755 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
756 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
757 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
760 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
761 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
762 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
765 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
766 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
768 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
769 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
770 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
773 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
775 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
776 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
779 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
780 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
782 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
783 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
784 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
785 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
786 level for the current thread.
788 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
790 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
792 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
793 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
796 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
798 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
800 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
803 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
805 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
808 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
809 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
810 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
812 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
813 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
814 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
815 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
826 ERROR: Numerical overflow
828 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
831 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
833 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
834 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
835 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
846 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
848 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
849 them is also done exactly, of course:
854 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
857 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
858 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
860 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
862 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
863 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
864 equal to a floating point number. For example:
866 (inexact->exact 1.234)
867 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
869 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
871 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
874 ** New function 'rationalize'.
876 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
877 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
879 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
882 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
883 result when both its arguments are exact.
885 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
887 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
888 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
889 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
891 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
893 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
894 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
895 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
897 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
900 ** pretty-print has more options.
902 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
903 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
904 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
906 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
908 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
909 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
910 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
912 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
914 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
915 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
917 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
919 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
920 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
923 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
925 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
926 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
927 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
928 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
929 without the soft port blocking.
931 ** Deprecated: undefine
933 There is no replacement for undefine.
935 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
936 have been discouraged.
938 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
939 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
940 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
943 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
945 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
947 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
948 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
949 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
950 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
953 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
954 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
955 be removed in the next major Guile release.
957 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
959 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
960 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
961 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
962 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
963 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
964 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
966 * Changes to the C interface
968 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
969 take a 'delete' function argument.
971 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
972 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
974 This is an incompatible change.
976 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
978 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
979 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
980 --disable-deprecated.
982 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
984 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
985 Scheme values has been added.
987 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
988 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
993 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
994 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
996 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
998 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
999 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1002 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1004 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1005 scm_from_int for ints.
1007 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1008 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1009 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1011 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1013 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1014 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1015 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1018 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1020 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1022 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1024 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1025 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1026 following alternatives.
1028 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1029 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1030 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1031 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1033 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1034 do the validating for you.
1036 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1037 have been discouraged.
1039 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1040 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1043 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1045 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1046 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1049 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1051 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1054 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1057 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1059 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1060 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1062 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1063 scm_truncate_number should have.
1065 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1066 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1068 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1071 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1072 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1073 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1075 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1076 easier to use from C.
1078 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1079 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1081 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1082 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1083 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1086 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1087 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1088 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1089 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1092 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1093 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1094 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1095 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1096 and is thus quite efficient.
1098 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1100 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1101 about the character encoding.
1103 Replace according to the following table:
1105 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1106 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1107 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1108 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1109 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1110 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1111 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1112 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1113 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1115 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1116 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1118 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1120 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1121 now also available to C code.
1123 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1125 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1126 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1127 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1129 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1132 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1134 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1135 unceremoniously removed.
1137 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1138 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1139 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1141 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1142 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1143 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1144 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1145 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1146 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1149 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1151 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1152 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1153 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1154 manual for more details.
1156 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1157 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1159 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1160 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1161 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1163 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1165 Migrate according to the following table:
1167 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1168 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1169 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1170 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1171 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1172 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1173 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1175 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1176 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1177 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1178 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1179 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1180 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1181 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1183 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1185 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1186 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1188 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1189 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1190 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1191 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1193 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1195 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1196 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1197 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1199 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1200 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1202 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1203 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1204 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1205 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1207 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1209 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1210 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1211 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1212 prevent a potential memory leak:
1219 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1221 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1222 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1224 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1225 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1232 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1233 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1237 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1239 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1241 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1242 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1243 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1245 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1246 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1248 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1250 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1252 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1253 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1254 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1256 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1257 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1259 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1260 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1261 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1262 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1265 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1267 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1268 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1269 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1271 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1273 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1274 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1276 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1278 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1279 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1281 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1283 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1284 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1285 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1287 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1289 You should not have used them.
1291 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1293 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1294 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1296 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1298 This macro is not intended for public use.
1300 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1302 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1304 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1306 Use scm_is_real instead.
1308 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1310 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1312 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1314 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1315 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1317 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1318 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1320 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1321 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1323 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1325 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1328 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1330 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1331 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1332 to the distribution" above.
1334 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1336 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1337 arguments are now passed directly:
1339 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1341 This is an incompatible change.
1343 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1345 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1346 function in the init section.
1348 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1350 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1352 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1353 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1354 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1355 stays roughly constant.
1357 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1358 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1359 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1360 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1361 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1364 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1365 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1366 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1367 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1369 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1370 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1371 objects for every type.
1374 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1376 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1378 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1380 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1381 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1382 initializes a new cell (see below).
1384 ** New functions for memory management
1386 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1387 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1388 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1389 cause aborts in long running programs.
1391 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1392 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1394 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1395 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1396 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1397 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1398 details and for upgrading instructions.
1400 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1401 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1402 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1404 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1406 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1407 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1408 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1409 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1410 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1412 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1413 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1414 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1416 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1417 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1419 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1421 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1422 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1423 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1424 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1425 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1427 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1429 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1432 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1434 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1436 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1438 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1439 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1441 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1443 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1444 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1446 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1447 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1449 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1451 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1453 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1454 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1455 blocking it is not well defined.
1457 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1459 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1460 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1461 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1462 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1463 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1464 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1465 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1466 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1467 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1468 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1469 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1470 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1471 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1472 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1473 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1474 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1475 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1476 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1477 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1478 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1479 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1480 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1481 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1482 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1483 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1484 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1485 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1486 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1487 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1488 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1489 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1491 * Changes to bundled modules
1495 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1496 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1497 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1498 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1499 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1502 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1504 * Changes to the distribution
1506 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1508 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1510 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1511 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1512 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1513 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1514 indicate major changes in Guile.
1516 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1517 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1518 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1519 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1521 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1522 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1523 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1524 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1525 micro version number.
1527 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1529 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1531 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1532 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1534 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1536 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1537 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1538 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1540 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1542 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1543 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1544 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1547 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1549 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1552 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1554 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1555 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1557 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1559 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1560 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1563 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1565 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1568 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1571 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1573 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1575 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1576 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1577 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1579 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1581 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1583 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1586 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1588 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1590 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1592 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1593 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1594 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1596 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1598 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1600 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1601 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1610 See README there for more info.
1612 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1613 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1616 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1618 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1620 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1622 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1623 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1624 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1626 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1628 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1629 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1630 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1632 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1633 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1635 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1638 (oop goops describe)
1640 (oop goops active-slot)
1641 (oop goops composite-slot)
1643 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1644 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1645 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1647 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1649 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1650 in the default environment:
1652 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1653 %read-line write-line
1655 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1656 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1658 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1660 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1663 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1664 can be used for similar functionality.
1666 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1668 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1669 it defines two procedures:
1671 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1673 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1674 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1675 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1678 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1680 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1681 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1682 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1683 write large strings.
1685 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1687 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1688 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1690 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1692 for complete documentation.
1694 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1696 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1697 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1698 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1699 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1701 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1702 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1706 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1707 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1708 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1711 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1714 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1715 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1717 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1718 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1721 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1724 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1726 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1728 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1730 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1732 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1733 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1734 Scheme programs easier.
1736 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1737 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1738 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1739 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1740 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1743 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1744 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1746 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1749 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1751 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1752 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1753 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1756 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1758 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1760 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1761 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1762 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1763 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1764 was also ASCII, for example.
1766 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1768 tag - no replacement.
1769 fseek - replaced by seek.
1770 list* - replaced by cons*.
1772 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1776 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1777 (define m (make-safe-module))
1778 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1779 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1780 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1782 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1784 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1785 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1786 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1788 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1790 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1791 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1792 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1793 from the issues related to the module system.
1795 *** New function: load-extension
1797 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1799 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1801 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1802 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1803 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1805 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1807 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1808 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1809 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1810 support dynamic linking).
1812 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1814 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1815 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1816 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1817 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1820 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1821 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1822 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1823 library and initialize it explicitly.
1825 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1826 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1828 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1830 (define-module (foo bar))
1832 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1834 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1836 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1837 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1839 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1840 (null-environment 5)
1841 (interaction-environment)
1847 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1849 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1850 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1851 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1852 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1854 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1855 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1856 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1857 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1858 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1859 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1860 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1861 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1862 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1863 one eval to the next.
1865 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1866 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1867 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1868 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1869 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1871 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1872 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1873 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1874 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1875 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1876 used in a lexical environment.
1878 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1879 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1880 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1881 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1882 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1883 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1885 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1887 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1888 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1889 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1890 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1891 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1893 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1894 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1895 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1897 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1898 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1900 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1901 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1902 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1904 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1905 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1907 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1908 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1909 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1910 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1913 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1914 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1915 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1916 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1918 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1919 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1920 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1922 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1923 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1924 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1925 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1926 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1928 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1930 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1931 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1932 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1934 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1935 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1936 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1938 See manual for more info.
1940 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1942 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1943 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1944 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1946 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1948 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1949 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1950 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1952 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1953 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1954 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1955 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1957 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1959 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1960 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1962 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1963 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1964 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1965 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1966 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1969 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1970 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1971 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1972 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1973 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1974 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1976 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1977 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1978 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1979 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1980 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1982 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1983 objects are usually permanent.
1985 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1986 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1988 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1990 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1991 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1994 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1998 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2003 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2005 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2006 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2007 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2008 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2010 ** New function `make-object-property'
2012 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2013 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2017 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2018 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2022 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2023 source properties eventually.
2025 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2027 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2028 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2029 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2031 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2032 will be removed in the next release.
2034 ** New define-module option: pure
2036 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2041 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2044 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2046 Export names NAME1 ...
2048 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2049 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2053 (define-module (foo)
2055 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2058 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2063 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2065 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2067 ** New function: port? X
2069 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2070 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2072 ** New function: file-port?
2074 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2076 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2078 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2079 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2080 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2081 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2082 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2084 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2086 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2087 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2088 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2089 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2090 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2093 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2095 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2096 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2097 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2098 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2101 ** New function: crypt password salt
2103 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2106 ** New function: chroot path
2108 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2110 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2112 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2115 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2117 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2119 ** New function: getpass prompt
2121 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2124 ** New function: flock file operation
2126 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2128 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2130 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2133 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2135 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2136 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2137 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2138 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2139 of the temporary file.
2141 ** New function: open-input-string string
2143 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2144 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2145 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2147 ** New function: open-output-string
2149 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2150 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2152 ** New function: get-output-string
2154 Return the contents of an output string port.
2156 ** New function: identity
2158 Return the argument.
2160 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2161 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2163 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2165 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2166 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2167 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2170 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2171 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2173 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2175 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2176 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2177 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2180 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2181 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2182 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2186 Use `identity' instead.
2192 ** Deprecated: return-it
2196 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2198 Use `string-length' instead.
2200 ** Deprecated: flags
2202 Use `logior' instead.
2204 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2206 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2207 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2208 port-for-each is more flexible.
2210 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2211 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2212 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2214 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2216 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2218 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2220 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2222 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2224 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2225 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2227 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2228 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2230 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2231 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2233 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2235 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2236 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2238 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2239 Use module system operations for all variables.
2241 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2243 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2246 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2248 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2249 The following bugs have been fixed:
2251 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2252 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2255 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2256 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2257 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2259 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2260 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2262 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2263 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2266 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2267 The expansion used to be like so:
2269 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2271 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2273 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2275 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2276 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2278 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2280 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2281 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2282 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2286 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2287 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2289 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2294 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2295 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2297 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2298 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2299 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2301 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2304 * Changes to the C interface
2306 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2308 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2309 with "_t". What a concept.
2311 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2313 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2315 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2319 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2320 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2322 *** C Functions removed
2324 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2325 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2326 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2327 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2328 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2329 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2330 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2332 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2334 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2336 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2338 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2340 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2341 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2343 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2345 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2348 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2350 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2352 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2354 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2355 Evaluation" in the manual.
2357 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2359 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2360 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2362 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2364 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2365 Constructors" in the manual.
2367 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2369 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2370 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2372 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2374 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2376 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2377 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2378 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2380 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2382 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2384 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2385 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2386 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2389 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2391 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2393 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2394 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2396 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2398 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2399 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2400 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2401 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2403 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2404 scm_primitive_property_ref
2405 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2406 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2408 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2409 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2411 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2413 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2414 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2415 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2416 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2418 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2420 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2421 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2422 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2423 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2424 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2425 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2426 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2428 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2429 scm_remember_upto_here
2431 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2433 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2435 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2436 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2438 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2440 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2442 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2444 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2446 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2448 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2449 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2450 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2451 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2452 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2453 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2455 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2457 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2459 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2460 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2461 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2463 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2465 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2466 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2467 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2469 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2471 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2472 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2475 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2478 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2479 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2482 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2484 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2486 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2488 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2490 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2492 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2494 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2495 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2496 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2497 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2498 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2499 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2500 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2501 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2502 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2503 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2504 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2505 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2506 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2507 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2508 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2510 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2511 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2512 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2513 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2514 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2515 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2516 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2517 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2518 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2519 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2520 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2521 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2522 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2523 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2524 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2525 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2526 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2527 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2528 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2529 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2530 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2531 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2532 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2533 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2534 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2535 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2536 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2537 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2538 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2540 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2542 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2544 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2545 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2547 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2549 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2551 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2553 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2555 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2557 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2559 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2561 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2563 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2566 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2567 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2569 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2571 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2573 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2575 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2577 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2579 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2581 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2583 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2586 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2588 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2590 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2592 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2593 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2595 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2596 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2598 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2600 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2601 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2602 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2604 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2606 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2608 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2609 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2611 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2612 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2613 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2614 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2616 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2617 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2618 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2620 Use the new ones from above instead.
2622 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2624 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2625 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2626 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2628 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2629 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2631 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2632 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2635 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2636 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2638 Use the new functions instead.
2640 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2643 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2645 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2647 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2650 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2652 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2655 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2657 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2660 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2661 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2662 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2664 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2666 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2667 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2669 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2670 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2671 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2672 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2675 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2677 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2678 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2679 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2680 inexact for an exact.
2682 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2683 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2684 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2687 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2688 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2689 accept an inexact argument.
2691 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2692 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2694 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2697 ** New number validation macros:
2698 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2702 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2704 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2705 scm_unprotect_object.
2707 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2709 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2711 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2714 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2716 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2720 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2722 * Changes to the distribution
2724 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2726 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2727 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2728 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2729 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2730 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2731 obtain these programs.
2732 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2733 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2735 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2736 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2737 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2738 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2739 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2741 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2742 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2743 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2744 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2748 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2751 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2752 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2753 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2754 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2756 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2758 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2760 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2761 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2763 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2764 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2766 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2767 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2769 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2770 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2771 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2772 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2774 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2776 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2780 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2781 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2783 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2785 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2786 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2788 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2789 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2790 number of objects of that kind.
2792 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2794 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2795 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2796 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2797 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2798 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2800 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2802 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2804 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2806 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2809 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2811 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2813 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2815 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2817 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2819 ** New command line option --debug
2821 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2823 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2825 ** New help facility
2827 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2828 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2829 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2830 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2831 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2832 (help) gives this text
2834 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2835 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2837 Examples: (help help)
2839 (help "output-string")
2841 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2843 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2845 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2846 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2849 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2850 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2851 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2854 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2855 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2856 use absolute filenames when possible.
2858 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2859 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2860 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2863 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2865 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2866 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2867 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2868 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2870 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2872 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2874 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2875 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2876 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2878 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2879 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2880 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2882 (read-enable 'positions)
2883 (debug-enable 'debug)
2885 ** Backtraces in scripts
2887 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2891 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2893 at the top of the script.
2895 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2896 The second enables backtraces.)
2898 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2900 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2901 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2902 substantially faster than before.
2904 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2905 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2907 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2908 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2910 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2912 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2913 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2914 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2916 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2917 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2918 when this hook is run in the future.
2920 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2921 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2923 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2925 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2926 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2929 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2930 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2931 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2933 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2934 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2936 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2937 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2939 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2940 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2941 in order not to need further allocation.)
2943 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2946 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2947 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2948 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2949 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2951 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2953 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2956 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2958 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2961 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2962 GC in percent of total heap size
2965 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2966 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2968 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2970 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2971 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2973 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2975 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2976 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2978 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2980 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2981 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2985 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2986 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2988 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2990 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2992 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2994 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2996 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2998 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2999 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3001 (simple-format port message . args)
3002 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3003 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3004 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3005 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3006 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3007 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3008 Does not add a trailing newline."
3010 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3012 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3013 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3015 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3016 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3018 ** Deprecated: list*
3020 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3022 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3024 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3025 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3027 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3028 is returned as result.
3030 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3032 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3034 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3036 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3037 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3040 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3042 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3044 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3045 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3047 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3049 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3051 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3053 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3055 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3057 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3059 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3061 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3062 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3063 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3065 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3068 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3070 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3071 the readability of argument checking.
3073 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3075 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3077 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3079 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3080 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3081 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3082 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3083 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3084 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3085 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3087 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3089 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3091 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3092 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3094 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3096 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3097 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3100 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3102 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3103 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3104 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3106 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3107 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3108 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3110 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3111 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3112 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3113 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3114 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3115 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3116 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3118 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3119 scm_end_input (object);
3120 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3121 ptob->flush (object);
3123 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3124 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3127 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3129 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3131 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3132 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3133 removed in a future version.
3135 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3137 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3138 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3139 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3140 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3142 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3143 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3145 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3148 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3150 in your configure.in.
3152 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3157 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3163 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3165 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3169 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3170 (define make-message string-append)
3172 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3174 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3178 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3183 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3187 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3189 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3190 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3192 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3194 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3195 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3196 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3197 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3198 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3199 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3201 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3202 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3203 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3205 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3206 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3207 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3210 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3211 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3212 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3213 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3214 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3216 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3217 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3218 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3219 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3220 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3221 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3222 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3224 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3226 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3227 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3228 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3230 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3231 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3232 KEY in the calling thread.
3234 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3235 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3236 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3237 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3238 associated with the key.
3240 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3242 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3243 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3245 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3247 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3248 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3249 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3251 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3253 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3254 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3256 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3258 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3260 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3261 returned is undefined.
3263 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3264 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3265 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3267 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3268 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3269 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3271 ** New C level GC hooks
3273 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3275 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3278 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3279 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3280 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3282 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3283 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3284 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3286 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3287 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3290 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3292 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3293 allocation parameters
3295 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3296 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3297 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3301 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3302 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3303 scm_default_max_segment_size
3305 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3307 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3308 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3310 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3312 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3313 object and count on the object being protected until
3314 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3316 The functions also have better time complexity.
3318 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3319 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3320 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3321 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3322 are no longer needed.
3324 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3326 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3327 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3328 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3329 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3331 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3333 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3335 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3337 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3338 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3339 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3340 until this issue has been settled.
3342 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3344 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3346 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3349 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3351 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3353 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3354 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3355 descriptors were checked.
3357 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3358 atomically written to a pipe.
3360 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3361 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3362 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3363 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3364 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3365 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3366 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3369 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3370 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3371 is changed without calling tzset.
3373 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3375 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3376 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3377 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3379 (define write-network-long
3380 (lambda (value port)
3381 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3382 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3383 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3385 (define read-network-long
3387 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3388 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3389 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3391 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3392 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3394 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3395 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3396 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3397 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3399 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3400 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3401 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3402 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3406 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3408 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3412 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3413 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3414 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3420 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3421 for a description of available commands.
3423 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3424 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3425 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3427 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3429 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3430 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3432 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3434 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3436 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3437 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3438 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3439 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3440 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3441 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3444 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3446 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3447 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3448 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3449 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3451 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3452 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3454 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3456 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3458 ** Readline support has changed again.
3460 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3461 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3462 to activate readline is now
3464 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3467 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3469 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3470 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3471 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3474 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3475 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3476 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3479 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3480 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3481 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3482 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3483 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3484 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3486 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3487 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3489 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3491 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3492 object it receives is the same string passed to
3493 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3494 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3495 string, not the suffix.
3497 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3498 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3499 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3501 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3503 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3504 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3505 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3506 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3509 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3511 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3513 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3514 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3515 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3516 appear from left to right.
3518 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3521 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3523 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3524 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3526 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3530 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3532 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3534 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3536 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3537 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3538 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3540 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3542 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3544 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3546 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3549 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3551 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3552 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3553 mentioning it here anyway.
3555 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3557 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3558 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3559 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3560 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3563 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3565 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3567 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3569 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3570 otherwise return #f.
3572 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3574 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3575 returned by `opendir'.
3577 ** New function: using-readline?
3579 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3581 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3583 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3584 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3586 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3588 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3590 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3591 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3592 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3594 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3596 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3597 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3599 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3601 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3602 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3603 documentation slots are not yet used.
3605 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3607 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3608 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3609 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3614 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3615 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3616 (string-append x y))
3618 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3619 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3621 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3622 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3623 be made in a clean way.]
3625 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3627 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3629 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3631 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3632 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3634 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3636 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3638 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3640 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3642 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3643 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3644 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3645 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3648 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3650 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3652 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3654 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3656 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3657 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3659 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3661 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3663 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3665 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3667 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3668 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3669 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3670 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3671 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3672 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3674 This should not make any difference for most users.
3676 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3678 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3679 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3681 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3683 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3684 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3685 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3686 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3687 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3689 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3691 It is now replaced by:
3693 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3695 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3696 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3698 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3700 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3701 This might change when we get the new module system.
3703 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3707 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3709 * Changes to mailing lists
3711 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3713 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3716 * Changes to the distribution
3718 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3720 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3721 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3722 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3723 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3724 you explicitly specify it.
3726 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3727 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3728 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3729 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3730 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3733 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3734 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3735 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3736 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3738 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3739 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3740 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3743 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3745 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3748 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3750 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3752 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3753 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3754 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3755 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3757 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3758 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3761 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3763 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3764 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3765 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3766 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3767 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3768 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3769 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3770 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3782 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3783 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3784 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3785 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3786 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3791 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3792 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3800 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3805 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3806 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3809 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3810 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3811 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3812 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3814 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3816 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3818 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3819 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3821 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3823 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3825 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3826 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3828 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3831 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3833 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3835 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3837 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3839 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3841 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3843 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3844 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3845 when the hook was created.
3847 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3848 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3849 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3850 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3851 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3852 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3853 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3854 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3855 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3857 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3858 the dlopen family of functions.
3860 ** New function `provided?'
3862 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3863 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3864 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3865 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3867 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3869 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3870 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3871 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3872 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3875 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3876 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3877 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3878 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3880 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3881 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3882 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3885 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3886 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3887 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3888 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3889 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3890 but with the flag set.
3892 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3894 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3895 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3897 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3898 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3899 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3900 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3901 available Scheme format implementations.
3903 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3904 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3905 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3906 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3907 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3908 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3909 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3910 output is to the current error port if available by the
3911 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3914 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3915 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3916 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3917 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3918 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3919 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3920 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3921 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3923 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3924 be executed at a time.
3927 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3929 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3930 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3931 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3933 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3934 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3935 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3936 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3937 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3938 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3939 general form of a directive is:
3941 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3943 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3945 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3947 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3948 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3949 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3952 Any (print as `display' does).
3956 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3960 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3964 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3970 print number sign always.
3973 print comma separated.
3975 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3981 print number sign always.
3984 print comma separated.
3986 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3992 print number sign always.
3995 print comma separated.
3997 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4003 print number sign always.
4006 print comma separated.
4008 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4013 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4017 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4020 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4023 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4026 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4031 prints `y' and `ies'.
4034 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4037 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4042 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4046 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4049 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4050 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4052 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4055 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4056 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4058 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4061 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4063 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4065 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4068 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4070 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4072 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4075 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4078 The sign appears before the padding.
4086 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4088 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4093 print N page separators.
4103 newline is ignored, white space left.
4106 newline is left, white space ignored.
4111 relative tabulation.
4117 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4119 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4122 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4124 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4127 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4130 converts by `string-upcase'.
4133 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4135 jumps N arguments forward.
4138 jumps 1 argument backward.
4141 jumps N arguments backward.
4144 jumps to the 0th argument.
4147 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4149 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4150 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4152 take argument from N.
4155 true test conditional.
4158 if-else-then conditional.
4164 default clause follows.
4167 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4169 at most N iterations.
4172 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4175 args from the rest of arguments.
4178 args from the rest args (lists).
4189 aborts if N <= M <= K
4191 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4194 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4197 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4203 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4205 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4207 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4208 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4209 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4210 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4211 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4212 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4216 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4220 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4226 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4229 Print a `#\space' character
4231 print N `#\space' characters.
4234 Print a `#\tab' character
4236 print N `#\tab' characters.
4239 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4240 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4241 must be a positive decimal number.
4244 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4245 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4246 be processed by `read'.
4249 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4250 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4251 be processed by `read'.
4254 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4257 prints format version.
4260 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4261 and format it accordingly.
4263 *** Configuration Variables
4265 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4266 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4267 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4268 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4271 format:symbol-case-conv
4272 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4273 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4274 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4275 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4276 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4278 format:iobj-case-conv
4279 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4280 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4283 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4286 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4292 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4293 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4294 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4295 `format' padding style.
4298 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4299 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4300 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4301 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4305 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4306 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4307 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4310 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4311 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4312 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4313 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4314 parameters or modifiers)).
4317 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4319 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4321 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4322 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4324 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4325 string-downcase! functions.
4327 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4328 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4330 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4333 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4336 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4337 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4339 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4341 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4342 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4344 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4345 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4346 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4347 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4348 would if STRING were input.
4350 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4352 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4353 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4354 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4355 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4358 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4360 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4361 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4364 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4366 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4367 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4369 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4370 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4372 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4373 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4374 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4375 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4377 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4378 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4380 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4381 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4382 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4384 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4385 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4387 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4388 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4389 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4390 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4391 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4393 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4394 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4395 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4396 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4397 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4398 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4400 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4401 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4402 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4405 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4406 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4407 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4408 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4409 the following grammar:
4410 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4411 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4412 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4413 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4414 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4415 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4416 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4417 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4418 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4419 last option in its combination)
4421 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4422 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4423 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4424 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4426 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4427 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4428 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4430 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4431 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4432 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4434 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4435 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4436 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4437 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4438 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4439 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4440 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4441 ordinary argument strings.
4443 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4444 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4445 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4446 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4448 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4449 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4451 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4452 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4453 - a required option is omitted
4454 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4455 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4456 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4457 - an option predicate fails
4462 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4465 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4466 (verbose (required? #f)
4469 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4470 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4471 (predicate ,string?))))
4473 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4474 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4476 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4477 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4478 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4479 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4482 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4484 It will be removed in a few releases.
4486 ** New syntax: lambda*
4487 ** New syntax: define*
4488 ** New syntax: define*-public
4489 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4490 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4491 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4493 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4494 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4495 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4496 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4497 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4499 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4500 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4501 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4503 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4505 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4506 and examples for `lambda*':
4509 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4511 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4512 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4513 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4514 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4515 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4516 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4517 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4518 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4520 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4522 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4523 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4524 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4525 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4527 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4528 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4529 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4530 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4531 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4532 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4533 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4534 and until the procedure is called.
4536 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4538 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4539 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4540 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4541 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4542 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4543 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4544 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4545 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4546 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4547 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4549 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4550 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4551 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4552 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4555 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4557 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4558 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4559 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4560 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4562 ** New syntax: and-let*
4563 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4565 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4566 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4567 (<variable> <expression>)
4570 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4571 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4572 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4575 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4576 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4577 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4578 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4579 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4580 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4581 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4583 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4584 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4585 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4586 shadow earlier bindings.
4588 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4590 ** New sorting functions
4592 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4593 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4594 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4595 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4597 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4598 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4601 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4602 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4603 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4605 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4606 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4607 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4608 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4610 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4611 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4612 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4613 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4614 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4617 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4618 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4619 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4620 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4621 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4622 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4624 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4625 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4626 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4628 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4629 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4630 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4633 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4634 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4635 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4637 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4638 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4640 ** New built-in random number support
4642 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4643 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4644 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4645 returned have a uniform distribution.
4647 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4648 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4649 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4650 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4651 effect of the `random' operation.
4653 *** New variable: *random-state*
4654 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4655 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4656 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4657 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4658 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4661 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4662 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4663 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4664 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4665 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4667 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4668 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4669 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4670 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4671 initialized using SEED.
4673 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4674 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4675 range between 0 and 1.
4677 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4678 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4679 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4680 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4681 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4682 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4683 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4685 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4686 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4687 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4688 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4689 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4690 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4692 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4693 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4694 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4695 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4697 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4698 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4699 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4700 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4702 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4703 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4704 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4706 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4708 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4711 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4712 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4715 ** New function: make-guardian
4716 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4717 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4718 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4719 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4720 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4722 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4723 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4724 one object if at all.
4726 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4727 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4728 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4730 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4731 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4732 read again in last-in first-out order.
4734 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4735 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4737 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4739 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4740 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4741 file position is used.
4743 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4744 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4745 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4747 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4748 redefined using seek.
4750 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4751 size is not supplied.
4753 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4754 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4756 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4757 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4759 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4761 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4762 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4763 and returns the contents as a single string.
4765 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4766 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4767 lists in serial order.
4769 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4770 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4771 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4773 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4774 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4775 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4776 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4778 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4779 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4780 and #f if an error occured.
4782 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4784 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4785 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4786 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4787 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4789 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4791 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4794 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4796 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4799 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4803 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4804 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4806 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4807 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4811 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4813 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4815 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4816 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4818 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4820 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4821 might change when we get the new module system.
4823 ** The smob interface
4825 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4826 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4828 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4830 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4834 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4835 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4836 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4837 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4838 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4839 will be freed by the default free function.
4841 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4842 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4843 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4844 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4846 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4847 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4848 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4849 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4851 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4853 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4854 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4858 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4859 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4860 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4862 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4863 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4864 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4865 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4867 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4868 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4869 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4871 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4872 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4873 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4874 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4876 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4877 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4878 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4880 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4884 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4886 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4887 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4888 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4890 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4891 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4892 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4894 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4895 a string port's buffer.
4897 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4898 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4899 function pointers which together define the current random number
4900 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4901 number library functions.
4903 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4906 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4907 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4910 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4911 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4913 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4914 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4916 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4917 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4920 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4921 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4922 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4923 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4925 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4926 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4927 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4928 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4929 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4930 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4931 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4933 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4934 by libguile and the application.
4936 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4937 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4938 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4939 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4941 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4942 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4944 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4945 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4946 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4948 ** Random number library functions
4949 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4950 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4951 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4953 The default random state is stored in:
4955 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4956 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4957 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4962 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4964 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4965 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4966 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4967 isn't a random state.
4969 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4970 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4972 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4973 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4974 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4975 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4977 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4978 Return 32 random bits.
4980 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4981 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4983 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4984 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4986 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4987 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4989 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4990 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4992 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4993 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4994 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4998 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5000 * Changes to the distribution
5002 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5003 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5004 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5007 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5008 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5009 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5011 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5012 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5013 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5014 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5017 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5018 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5019 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5021 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5023 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5025 *** Function: batch-mode?
5027 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5030 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5032 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5033 case has not been implemented.
5035 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5036 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5037 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5040 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5041 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5043 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5045 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5047 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5049 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5050 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5053 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5054 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5055 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5056 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5059 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5061 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5062 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5063 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5064 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5065 find those libraries.
5067 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5068 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5071 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5073 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5074 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5075 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5076 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5078 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5079 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5080 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5084 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5086 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5087 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5088 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5091 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5092 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5093 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5094 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5096 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5097 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5100 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5101 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5102 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5103 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5104 compiler where to find the libraries.
5106 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5107 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5108 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5110 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5111 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5112 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5113 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5114 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5118 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5120 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5121 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5122 internationalization support.
5124 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5125 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5126 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5127 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5128 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5130 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5131 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5132 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5133 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5134 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5136 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5137 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5138 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5139 any GNU mirror site.
5141 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5143 ** New function: add-history STRING
5144 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5145 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5146 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5148 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5150 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5151 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5152 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5155 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5156 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5157 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5159 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5161 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5164 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5165 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5168 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5169 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5170 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5171 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5172 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5173 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5175 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5176 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5177 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5178 of the form mentioned above.
5180 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5181 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5182 returned in the special `rest' list.
5184 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5185 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5187 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5189 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5191 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5193 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5194 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5195 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5196 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5197 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5198 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5199 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5200 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5203 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5205 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5207 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5208 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5211 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5212 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5213 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5217 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5218 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5219 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5220 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5221 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5222 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5223 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5224 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5227 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5229 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5230 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5231 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5233 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5235 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5236 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5238 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5239 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5240 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5242 Why do we have this function?
5243 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5244 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5245 primitive, and display it differently, and
5246 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5247 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5250 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5251 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5254 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5255 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5256 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5257 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5259 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5260 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5263 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5264 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5266 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5268 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5269 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5270 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5271 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5272 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5273 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5274 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5277 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5279 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5280 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5282 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5283 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5284 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5285 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5286 properly continue the print chain.
5288 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5289 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5290 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5291 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5292 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5293 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5294 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5295 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5297 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5298 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5299 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5300 safest to not check for these pairs.
5302 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5303 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5304 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5305 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5307 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5309 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5310 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5312 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5314 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5316 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5317 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5318 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5320 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5321 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5322 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5324 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5325 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5326 the following functions and macros:
5328 Function: make-fluid
5330 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5331 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5332 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5333 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5334 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5336 Function: fluid? OBJ
5338 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5340 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5341 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5343 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5344 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5346 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5348 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5349 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5350 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5351 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5352 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5353 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5354 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5356 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5358 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5359 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5360 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5361 should evaluate to a fluid.
5363 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5365 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5366 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5367 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5368 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5369 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5371 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5374 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5376 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5378 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5380 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5383 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5384 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5385 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5386 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5387 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5390 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5391 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5392 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5394 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5395 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5396 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5398 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5399 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5400 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5401 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5403 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5404 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5405 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5406 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5408 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5409 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5410 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5411 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5413 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5414 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5415 their revealed counts set to zero.
5417 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5418 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5420 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5421 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5423 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5424 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5426 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5427 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5428 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5430 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5431 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5432 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5434 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5435 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5436 default environment inherited by child processes.
5438 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5439 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5440 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5442 The return value is unspecified.
5444 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5445 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5446 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5447 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5448 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5450 The return value is unspecified.
5452 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5453 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5461 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5462 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5465 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5468 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5469 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5470 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5472 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5473 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5474 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5475 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5478 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5479 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5481 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5482 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5483 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5484 the `environ' procedure.
5486 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5487 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5490 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5491 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5493 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5494 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5495 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5496 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5498 *** procedure: times
5499 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5500 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5501 return a selected component:
5504 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5508 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5511 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5515 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5516 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5520 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5521 terminated child processes.
5523 ** Removed: list-length
5524 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5525 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5527 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5529 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5531 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5533 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5534 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5535 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5536 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5538 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5539 extra complexity it introduces.
5541 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5542 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5544 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5545 variable to any non-empty value.
5547 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5548 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5550 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5552 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5553 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5555 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5557 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5558 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5560 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5562 ** vector handling routines
5564 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5565 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5566 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5567 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5568 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5570 ** pair and list routines
5572 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5575 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5577 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5580 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5582 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5584 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5585 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5586 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5587 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5588 site-specific initialization code.
5590 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5591 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5592 initialization processes.
5594 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5595 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5596 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5597 initialized properly.
5599 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5600 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5601 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5603 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5604 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5605 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5606 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5607 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5609 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5611 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5612 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5613 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5614 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5615 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5617 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5618 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5619 which look like this:
5622 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5624 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5625 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5628 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5629 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5632 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5634 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5635 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5636 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5638 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5639 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5640 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5641 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5642 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5644 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5645 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5647 int (*free) (SCM port);
5648 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5649 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5650 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5654 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5655 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5656 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5658 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5661 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5662 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5663 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5665 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5666 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5667 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5670 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5674 struct timeval *timeout);
5676 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5677 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5678 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5679 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5680 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5681 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5683 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5684 scm_catch_body_t body,
5686 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5689 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5690 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5691 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5692 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5693 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5694 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5696 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5698 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5701 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5702 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5703 spawning threads from application C code.
5705 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5706 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5707 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5708 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5709 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5710 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5712 ** Removed functions:
5714 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5715 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5717 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5719 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5720 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5722 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5724 ** mbstrings are now removed
5726 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5727 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5729 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5731 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5732 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5733 their new names and arguments:
5735 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5736 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5737 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5738 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5741 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5743 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5745 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5748 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5750 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5751 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5752 pass a #f arg to catch.
5754 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5756 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5757 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5760 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5761 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5762 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5763 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5764 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5765 reclaim its storage.
5767 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5768 worrying that some other function you call will call
5769 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5770 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5771 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5772 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5775 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5777 * Changes to the distribution
5779 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5780 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5783 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5784 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5786 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5787 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5789 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5791 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5792 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5793 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5795 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5797 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5798 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5799 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5800 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5801 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5802 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5804 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5805 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5806 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5809 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5810 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5811 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5812 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5814 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5815 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5816 libraries to your link command:
5818 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5819 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5820 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5821 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5823 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5824 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5825 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5827 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5829 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5830 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5833 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5835 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5836 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5837 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5838 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5839 searched is system dependent.
5841 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5843 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5845 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5847 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5848 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5850 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5852 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5853 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5854 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5855 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5856 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5859 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5861 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5862 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5863 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5864 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5865 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5867 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5869 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5870 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5872 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5874 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5875 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5876 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5879 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5881 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5882 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5883 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5884 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5886 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5887 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5889 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5891 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5892 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5894 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5896 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5897 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5905 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5907 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5908 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5909 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5910 a more informative way.
5912 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5913 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5914 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5915 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5916 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5917 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5919 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5920 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5923 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5924 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5925 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5928 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5929 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5930 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5931 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5932 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5933 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5935 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5936 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5937 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5938 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5941 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5942 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5943 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5944 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5945 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5946 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5948 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5949 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5950 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5951 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5952 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5954 *** regexp functions
5956 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5957 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5958 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5960 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5961 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5962 with SCSH regular expressions.
5964 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5965 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5966 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5967 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5969 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5970 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5971 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5972 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5974 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5975 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5976 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5977 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5978 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5979 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5981 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5982 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5983 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5984 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5985 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5987 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5989 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5990 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5991 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5992 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5994 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5995 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5996 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5998 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5999 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6001 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6004 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6005 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6006 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6008 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6009 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6010 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6012 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6013 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6014 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6015 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6016 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6019 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6021 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6022 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6023 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6024 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6025 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6026 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6028 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6029 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6030 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6032 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6033 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6036 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6037 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6039 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6040 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6041 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6042 may be one of the following arguments:
6044 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6046 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6048 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6049 the regexp match is written.
6051 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6052 following the regexp match is written.
6054 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6055 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6058 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6059 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6060 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6061 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6062 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6063 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6065 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6068 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6069 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6070 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6071 written out to PORT.
6073 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6074 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6075 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6076 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6077 will return after processing a single match.
6079 *** Match Structures
6081 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6082 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6083 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6084 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6085 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6086 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6089 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6090 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6091 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6092 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6093 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6095 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6096 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6097 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6099 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6100 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6101 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6102 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6103 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6105 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6106 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6108 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6109 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6111 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6112 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6114 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6115 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6117 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6118 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6119 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6120 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6122 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6123 Return the original TARGET string.
6125 *** Backslash Escapes
6127 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6128 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6129 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6130 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6131 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6132 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6134 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6135 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6136 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6137 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6138 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6139 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6140 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6141 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6143 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6144 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6145 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6146 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6147 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6148 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6149 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6151 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6152 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6153 return the resulting string.
6155 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6156 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6157 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6158 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6159 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6160 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6161 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6162 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6163 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6164 translated to the single character `*'.
6166 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6167 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6168 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6169 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6170 consecutive backslashes:
6172 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6174 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6175 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6176 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6178 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6179 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6180 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6181 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6182 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6183 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6185 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6187 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6188 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6189 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6190 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6191 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6192 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6193 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6194 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6195 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6196 cumbersome escape syntax.
6198 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6200 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6202 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6204 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6207 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6209 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6211 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6214 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6215 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6216 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6217 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6218 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6220 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6221 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6222 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6223 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6224 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6225 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6226 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6229 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6230 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6231 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6234 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6235 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6237 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6238 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6239 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6240 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6241 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6242 installed, you can say:
6244 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6247 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6249 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6250 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6251 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6252 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6253 new dynamic roots and threads.
6256 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6258 * Changes to the distribution.
6260 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6262 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6263 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6264 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6265 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6266 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6267 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6268 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6269 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6271 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6274 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6275 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6280 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6282 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6283 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6285 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6286 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6287 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6288 the (command-line) function.
6289 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6290 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6291 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6293 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6294 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6295 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6296 command line arguments
6297 -ds do -s script at this point
6298 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6299 -h, --help display this help and exit
6300 -v, --version display version information and exit
6301 \ read arguments from following script lines
6303 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6304 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6306 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6309 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6313 (main (command-line))
6315 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6317 ekko a speckled gecko
6319 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6320 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6321 following list of command-line arguments:
6323 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6325 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6326 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6327 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6328 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6329 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6331 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6333 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6335 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6336 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6339 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6340 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6341 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6342 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6344 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6345 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6346 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6347 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6349 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6353 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6357 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6359 ekko a speckled gecko
6361 Unix expands this into
6363 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6365 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6366 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6368 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6370 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6371 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6373 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6374 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6375 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6376 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6377 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6378 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6379 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6380 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6381 it only terminates the argument list.)
6382 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6383 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6384 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6385 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6386 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6387 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6388 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6389 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6391 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6393 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6394 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6395 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6396 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6397 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6399 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6400 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6401 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6403 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6405 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6406 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6407 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6408 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6411 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6412 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6413 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6415 * Changes to Scheme functions
6417 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6418 and disabled by default.
6420 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6421 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6422 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6423 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6425 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6427 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6429 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6430 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6432 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6433 (read-set! keywords #f)
6435 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6436 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6437 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6440 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6441 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6442 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6445 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6446 support for Scheme functions.
6448 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6449 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6450 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6451 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6454 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6455 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6456 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6459 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6460 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6461 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6464 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6465 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6466 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6467 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6468 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6469 display the result as a prompt.
6470 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6472 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6473 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6474 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6477 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6478 procedure of zero arguments.
6480 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6481 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6482 argument is bound in the current module.
6484 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6485 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6486 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6487 public bindings into the current module.
6489 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6490 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6492 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6493 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6495 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6496 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6498 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6499 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6501 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6502 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6504 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6505 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6506 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6507 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6508 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6510 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6511 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6512 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6513 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6515 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6518 ** Changes to I/O functions
6520 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6521 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6522 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6524 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6525 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6526 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6528 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6529 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6531 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6532 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6533 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6534 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6536 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6538 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6539 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6541 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6542 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6543 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6544 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6545 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6548 'trim omit delimiter from result
6549 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6550 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6551 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6553 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6555 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6556 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6558 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6559 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6560 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6561 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6562 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6564 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6565 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6566 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6568 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6569 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6570 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6571 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6573 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6574 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6576 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6577 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6579 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6581 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6582 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6583 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6584 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6585 a delimiting character.
6586 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6588 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6589 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6590 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6591 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6592 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6593 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6595 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6596 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6598 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6599 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6600 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6602 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6603 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6604 the array to read and write.
6606 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6607 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6610 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6612 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6615 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6616 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6617 Values for COMMAND are:
6619 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6620 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6621 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6622 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6623 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6624 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6625 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6626 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6628 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6630 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6631 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6632 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6633 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6634 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6635 corresponding return set will be the same.
6637 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6640 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6641 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6642 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6643 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6644 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6645 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6646 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6647 special file being created.
6649 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6650 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6652 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6653 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6654 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6655 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6656 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6657 and originating address.
6659 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6660 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6661 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6663 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6666 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6667 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6670 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6671 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6672 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6673 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6674 this function returns #f.
6676 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6677 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6678 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6681 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6682 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6683 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6686 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6687 a valid STATUS value.
6689 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6691 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6692 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6694 Component Accessor Setter
6695 ========================= ============ ============
6696 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6697 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6698 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6699 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6700 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6701 year tm:year set-tm:year
6702 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6703 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6704 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6705 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6706 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6708 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6709 describing the host system:
6712 ============================================== ================
6713 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6714 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6715 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6716 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6717 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6719 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6720 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6721 system's user database:
6724 ====================== =================
6725 user name passwd:name
6726 user password passwd:passwd
6729 real name passwd:gecos
6730 home directory passwd:dir
6731 shell program passwd:shell
6733 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6734 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6735 system's group database:
6738 ======================= ============
6739 group name group:name
6740 group password group:passwd
6742 group members group:mem
6744 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6745 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6749 ========================= ===============
6750 official name of host hostent:name
6751 alias list hostent:aliases
6752 host address type hostent:addrtype
6753 length of address hostent:length
6754 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6756 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6757 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6761 ========================= ===============
6762 official name of net netent:name
6763 alias list netent:aliases
6764 net number type netent:addrtype
6765 net number netent:net
6767 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6768 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6772 ========================= ===============
6773 official protocol name protoent:name
6774 alias list protoent:aliases
6775 protocol number protoent:proto
6777 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6778 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6782 ========================= ===============
6783 official service name servent:name
6784 alias list servent:aliases
6785 port number servent:port
6786 protocol to use servent:proto
6788 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6789 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6792 ======================================== ===============
6793 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6794 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6795 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6796 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6798 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6799 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6800 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6802 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6803 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6805 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6806 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6808 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6809 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6811 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6813 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6815 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6816 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6817 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6819 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6820 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6821 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6822 return the remaining characters as a string.
6824 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6825 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6826 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6828 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6830 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6832 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6835 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6838 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6839 and returns the array
6841 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6842 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6843 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6845 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6847 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6848 symbol's value from C code:
6850 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6851 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6852 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6853 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6855 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6856 without assigning them a value.
6858 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6859 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6860 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6862 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6863 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6864 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6866 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6867 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6869 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6870 doesn't actually care about that.
6872 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6873 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6874 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6876 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6877 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6878 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6879 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6880 which we have just created and initialized.
6882 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6883 should one occur. We call it like this:
6884 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6886 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6887 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6888 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6889 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6890 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6891 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6894 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6895 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6896 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6897 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6898 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6899 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6900 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6903 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6904 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6905 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6906 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6907 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6910 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6911 scm_internal_catch, except:
6913 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6914 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6915 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6916 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6919 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6920 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6921 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6923 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6924 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6925 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6926 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6929 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6930 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6931 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6933 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6934 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6935 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6936 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6937 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6939 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6940 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6941 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6943 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6944 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6945 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6947 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6948 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6950 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6951 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6952 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6955 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6956 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6957 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6958 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6959 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6960 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6961 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6964 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6965 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6967 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6968 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6969 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6970 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6971 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6974 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6975 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6977 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6978 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6981 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6982 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6984 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6987 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6988 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6989 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6990 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6991 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6992 given the following arguments:
6994 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6996 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6998 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7000 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7003 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7004 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7005 command-line arguments.
7007 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7008 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7009 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7010 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7011 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7012 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7015 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7018 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7019 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7021 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7022 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7024 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7025 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7026 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7027 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7029 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7030 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7032 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7033 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7034 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7035 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7037 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7038 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7040 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7041 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7043 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7045 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7046 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7047 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7050 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7051 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7053 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7054 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7059 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7062 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7064 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7065 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7066 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7067 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7069 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7071 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7073 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7074 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7075 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7076 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7077 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7078 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7079 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7080 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7081 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7082 for more information.
7084 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7085 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7087 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7088 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7089 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7090 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7091 following two lines at the top of the file:
7093 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7096 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7097 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7098 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7100 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7102 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7104 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7107 (display (car args))
7108 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7110 (loop (cdr args)))))
7113 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7114 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7115 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7116 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7117 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7118 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7122 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7125 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7128 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7130 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7131 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7132 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7133 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7134 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7137 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7138 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7139 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7140 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7141 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7144 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7147 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7148 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7149 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7152 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7153 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7154 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7156 to see a backtrace, and
7157 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7158 to see them by default.
7162 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7164 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7166 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7167 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7170 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7171 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7172 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7173 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7176 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7177 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7178 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7179 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7180 functions which inspired them.
7182 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7183 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7187 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7189 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7191 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7192 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7195 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7196 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7197 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7199 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7200 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7201 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7202 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7203 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7205 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7207 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7208 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7209 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7212 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7215 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7217 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7218 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7219 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7220 above should serve their purposes.
7222 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7223 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7224 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7225 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7227 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7230 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7231 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7232 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7233 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7235 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7236 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7237 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7238 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7240 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7241 for the `read' function.
7244 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7245 to that of `integer?'.
7247 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7248 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7250 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7251 it simply returns the object's property list.
7253 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7254 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7255 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7256 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7258 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7260 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7263 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7265 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7266 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7268 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7270 void (*main_func) (),
7273 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7274 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7275 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7276 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7277 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7279 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7280 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7281 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7282 know which arguments have been processed.
7284 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7285 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7286 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7287 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7288 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7290 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7291 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7292 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7293 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7294 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7295 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7296 people from making that mistake.
7298 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7299 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7301 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7303 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7307 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7310 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7311 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7312 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7313 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7316 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7317 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7318 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7319 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7322 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7323 have been added to the Guile library.
7325 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7326 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7327 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7330 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7331 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7332 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7334 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7335 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7336 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7337 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7338 argument from the list.
7341 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7344 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7345 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7347 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7348 to a Scheme port object.
7350 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7351 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7356 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7358 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7359 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7360 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7361 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7362 code as a special datatype.
7364 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7365 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7366 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7367 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7368 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7371 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7372 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7373 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7374 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7375 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7377 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7380 Copyright information:
7382 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7384 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7385 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7386 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7387 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7389 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7390 of this document, or of portions of it,
7391 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7392 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7397 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"