1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Note: During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the
9 latest prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.
11 Changes in 1.9.14 (since the 1.9.13 prerelease):
13 ** New module: `(ice-9 futures)'.
15 See "Futures" in the manual, for more information.
17 ** Add bindings to GNU `sched_setaffinity' and `sched_getaffinity'.
19 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
21 ** New module `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
23 See "SRFI-38" in the manual, for more information. Thanks to Andreas
26 ** New module: `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
27 ** New module: `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
28 ** New module: `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
29 ** New module: `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
30 ** New module: `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
31 ** New module: `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
32 ** New module: `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
34 See "Web" in the manual, for more information, but as a taste of things,
35 try the following command line:
37 meta/guile examples/web/debug-sxml.scm
39 Then visit http://localhost:8080/ in your web browser. Let us know how
42 ** Better Emacs Lisp implementation
44 Brian Templeton's Summer-of-Code work was finally merged in, which
45 should improve the state of Guile's Elisp support. There is still some
46 work to do, so patches are welcome!
50 There were many fixes and enhancements to the R6RS support. Thanks to
51 Julian Graham, Andreas Rottmann, and Göran Weinholt.
53 ** Expression-oriented readline history
55 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
56 input lines. Let us know what you think!
58 ** Better syntax errors
60 The Scheme expander, Ecmascript compiler, and other language
61 implementations now produce more useful syntax errors. The default
62 error handlers print them out more nicely now.
64 ** Lots of documentation updates
66 In particular, the documentation for GOOPS and regular expressions has
67 seen some work. Unfortunately the code has come too fast and furious
68 for full documentary folios, so some of the new modules are still
71 ** Better pretty-printing
73 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
74 macros like `quote' are printed better.
76 ** Multicast socket options
78 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
79 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
82 ** Deprecate `cuserid'
84 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
85 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
87 ** New procedure. `reload-module'
89 Needs documenting and a REPL meta-command.
91 ** Allow user-defined REPL meta-commands
93 See FIXME in the manual, for more information.
95 ** Add support for unbound fluids
97 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
100 ** Add variable-unset!
104 ** Command line additions
106 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
107 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
110 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
112 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
116 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
118 * New modules (see the manual for details)
120 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
121 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
122 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
123 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
124 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
125 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
126 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
127 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
128 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
129 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
130 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
131 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
132 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
133 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
135 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
137 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
138 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
139 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
141 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
142 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
143 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
145 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
147 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
148 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
149 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
151 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
153 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
154 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
157 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
159 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
161 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
162 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
164 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
166 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
167 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
168 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
170 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
171 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
173 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
174 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
175 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
178 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
180 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
181 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
183 ** Remove old Emacs interface
185 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
186 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
187 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
190 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
192 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
193 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
194 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
197 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
199 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
201 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
202 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
203 parentheses. This option is on by default.
205 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
206 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
207 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
208 so this option is off by default.
210 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
212 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
213 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
214 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
216 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
217 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
219 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
221 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
222 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
223 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
225 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
226 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
227 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
228 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
230 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
231 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
234 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
236 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
239 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
241 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
242 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
243 include `/path/to/lib'.
245 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
247 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
250 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
252 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
253 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
254 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
255 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
258 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
260 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
261 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
262 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
264 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
266 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
267 just for the operator position.
269 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
271 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
272 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
274 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
276 ** Support for R6RS libraries
278 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
279 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
280 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
281 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
282 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
284 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
286 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
287 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
288 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
290 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
292 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
295 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
296 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
297 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
300 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
301 mentioned in that compatibility list.
303 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
305 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
306 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
307 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
308 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
310 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
311 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
312 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
313 code, and simplifying debugging.
315 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
316 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
318 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
319 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
320 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
321 both of these situations.
323 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
324 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
325 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
326 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
328 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
330 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
331 not apply to the compiler.
333 ** No more `local-eval'
335 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
336 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
337 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
338 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
341 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
342 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
345 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
347 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
348 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
349 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
351 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
352 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
353 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
356 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
357 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
358 will be created if needed.
360 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
361 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
363 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
365 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
366 in the next prerelease.
368 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
370 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
372 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
374 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
376 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
378 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
379 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
380 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
382 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
383 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
384 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
385 procedures' docstrings for more information.
387 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
388 combining arity and formals. For example:
390 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
391 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
393 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
396 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
398 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
399 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
400 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
401 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
403 ** New language: ECMAScript
405 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
406 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
407 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
408 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
410 ** New language: Brainfuck
412 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
413 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
414 languages. See the manual for details, or
415 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
416 Brainfuck language itself.
418 ** New language: Elisp
420 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
421 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
422 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
424 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
426 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
427 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
428 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
429 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
432 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
434 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
435 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
436 properties. For example:
442 (procedure-properties foo)
443 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
445 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
448 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
450 (procedure-properties bar)
451 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
453 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
456 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
459 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
461 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
462 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
465 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
466 (define (helper x) ...)
468 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
470 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
473 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
474 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
476 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
478 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
479 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
480 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
482 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
484 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
485 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
486 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
487 for more information.
489 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
491 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
492 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
494 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
496 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
497 in the manual, for more information.
499 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
502 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
503 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
505 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
507 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
509 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
511 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
512 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
513 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
514 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
515 in response to user feedback.
517 ** Support for `letrec*'
519 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
520 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
521 manual, for more details.
523 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
525 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
526 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
531 (define baz (+ bar 20))
534 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
535 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
536 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
539 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
540 in earlier Guile dialects.
542 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
544 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
545 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
546 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
547 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
549 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
550 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
551 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
552 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
555 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
557 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
558 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
561 (define (helper x) ...)
562 (define-macro (foo bar)
565 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
568 (define (helper x) ...)
569 (define-macro (foo bar)
570 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
572 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
576 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
578 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
580 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
587 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
588 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
591 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
593 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
594 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
597 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
599 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
600 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
601 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
603 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
605 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
609 (define-macro (ref x) x)
612 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
613 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
614 macros before code that uses them.
616 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
619 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
621 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
622 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
623 (double-literal 2) => 4
625 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
626 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
627 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
629 (eval-when (load compile eval)
630 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
631 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
632 (double-literal 2) => 4
634 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
636 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
638 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
639 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
640 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
641 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
644 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
646 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
647 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
649 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
651 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
652 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
653 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
655 ** Incompatible change to #'
657 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
658 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
659 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
660 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
662 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
664 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
667 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
669 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
670 in the manual, for more information.
672 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
673 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
675 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
676 works (with compiled procedures)
678 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
679 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
680 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
681 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
683 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
684 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
685 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
686 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
687 number of stack frames.
689 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
690 active in the current continuation
692 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
693 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
694 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
695 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
697 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
699 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
701 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
702 through to the expanded code
704 This should result in better backtraces.
706 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
708 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
710 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
712 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
713 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
716 ** New procedure, `define!'
718 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
719 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
720 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
721 less verbose than `module-define!'.
723 ** All modules have names now
725 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
726 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
727 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
728 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
730 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
732 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
733 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
734 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
735 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
737 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
738 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
739 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
740 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
741 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
742 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
744 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
745 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
746 days of Guile's modules.
748 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
749 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
750 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
751 record accessors appropriately.
753 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
754 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
755 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
757 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
758 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
759 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
761 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
762 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
765 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
766 namespaces instead of values.
768 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
770 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
771 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
772 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
773 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
775 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
777 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
779 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
781 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
782 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
784 ** Modules load within a known environment
786 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
787 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
788 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
791 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
793 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
794 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
795 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
797 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
798 values to the expected number
800 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
801 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
802 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
804 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
805 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
806 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
807 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
809 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
810 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
811 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
813 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
816 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
818 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
820 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
821 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
822 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
823 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
824 the interpreter would proceed.
826 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
827 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
828 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
829 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
831 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
833 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
834 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
835 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
836 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
837 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
838 you to contact the Guile developers.
840 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
842 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
843 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
844 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
846 ** psyntax is now the default expander
848 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
849 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
852 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
853 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
854 code in question was memoized.
856 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
857 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
858 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
859 `x432' instead of `x'.
861 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
862 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
863 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
864 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
866 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
868 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
869 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
870 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
873 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
874 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
875 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
876 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
878 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
880 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
881 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
882 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
883 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
887 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
890 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
891 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
892 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
894 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
895 by nonhygienic macros.
897 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
898 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
901 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
902 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
903 (define-macro (ref x)
910 (define-syntax bind-x
912 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
913 (define-macro (ref x)
917 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
918 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
919 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
920 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
921 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
922 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
924 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
926 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
927 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
929 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
930 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
933 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
935 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
936 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
937 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
938 transformer procedures.
940 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
942 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
943 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
944 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
946 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
948 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
949 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
950 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
951 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
953 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
955 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
956 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
957 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
960 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
962 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
963 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
964 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
965 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
967 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
969 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
970 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
971 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
974 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
975 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
976 documentation for more details.
978 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
980 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
981 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
983 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
985 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
986 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
987 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
988 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
989 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
990 addressed by element and not by byte.
992 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
993 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
994 endianness, as one would expect.
996 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
997 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
998 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
999 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1002 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1003 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1005 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1006 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1008 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1010 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1012 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1013 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1014 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1016 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1017 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1019 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1021 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1023 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1024 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1026 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1028 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1029 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1032 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1034 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1035 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1037 ** Unicode characters
1039 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1040 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1041 probably be introduced at some point.
1045 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1046 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1047 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1049 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1050 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1051 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1052 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1056 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1058 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1060 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1061 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1062 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1063 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1064 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1067 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1068 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1069 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1071 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1073 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1074 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1075 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1078 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1079 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1080 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1082 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1084 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1086 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1087 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1088 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1089 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1091 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1093 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1094 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1095 Unicode code points.
1097 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1099 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1100 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1101 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1104 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1106 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1107 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1108 and was unmaintained.
1110 ** Compile-time warnings
1112 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1113 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1114 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1115 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1118 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1119 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1120 `#:warnings' as above.
1122 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1123 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1124 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1126 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1128 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1131 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1133 This slightly improves program startup times.
1135 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1137 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1139 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1141 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1142 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1143 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1144 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1146 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1148 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1149 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1150 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1151 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1153 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1154 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1155 implement method combinations.
1157 ** Applicable struct support
1159 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1160 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1161 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1162 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1163 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1164 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1165 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1166 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1170 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1171 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1172 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1173 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1174 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1176 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1178 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1179 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1180 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1181 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1183 ** eqv? not a generic
1185 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1186 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1187 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1188 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1190 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1192 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1193 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1194 functions are deprecated.
1196 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1198 See "File System" in the manual.
1200 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1202 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1203 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1204 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1206 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1208 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1209 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1210 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1212 ** Fast bit operations.
1214 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1215 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1216 it's for number crunching too.
1218 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1220 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1221 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1222 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1223 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1225 ** R6RS block comment support
1227 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1228 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1230 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1232 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1233 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1235 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1236 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1237 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1239 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1240 ;; separate compilation phase.
1241 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1243 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1245 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1247 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1249 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1250 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1251 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1252 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1253 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1256 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1257 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1258 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1259 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1260 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1262 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1264 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1266 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1268 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1270 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1272 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1274 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1275 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1276 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1278 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1280 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1281 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1283 ** New readline history functions
1285 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1286 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1287 History library functions.
1289 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1290 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1292 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1295 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1297 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1298 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1299 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1300 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1301 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1302 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1303 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1305 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1306 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1308 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1309 `before-signal-stack'.
1311 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1312 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1313 a deprecation warning.
1315 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1317 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1318 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1319 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1320 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1323 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1325 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1326 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1327 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1328 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1330 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1331 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1333 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1335 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1336 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1337 left in the default environment.
1339 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1341 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1342 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1343 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1344 information for the error.
1346 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1348 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1349 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1350 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1352 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
1354 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
1355 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
1357 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
1359 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
1362 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
1364 ** Remove obsolete print-options
1366 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
1369 ** Remove obsolete read-options
1371 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
1372 obsolete, so they have been removed.
1374 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
1376 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
1379 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
1381 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
1382 on their replacements.
1384 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
1386 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
1387 should use Guile with Emacs.
1389 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1391 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1392 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1393 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1394 `with-throw-handler'.
1396 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1398 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1399 and is no longer used.
1401 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1403 `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1404 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1405 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!'
1407 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1409 * Changes to the C interface
1411 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1413 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1414 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1415 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1417 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1418 code easier and less error-prone.
1420 ** New procedures: `scm_to_latin1_stringn', `scm_from_latin1_stringn'
1422 Use these procedures when you know you have latin1-encoded or
1423 ASCII-encoded strings.
1425 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
1427 Use these procedures if you want to encode or decode from a particular
1430 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1432 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1433 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1434 available to C. Have fun!
1436 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1438 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1440 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1443 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1444 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1446 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1448 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1449 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1450 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1453 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1455 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1456 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1457 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1458 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1461 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1463 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1464 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1465 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1466 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1467 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1468 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1470 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1471 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1472 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1473 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1474 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1475 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1477 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1478 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1479 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1480 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1481 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1483 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1484 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1485 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1486 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1487 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1488 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1490 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1491 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1492 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1493 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1496 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1497 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1500 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1502 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1503 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1504 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1505 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1506 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1508 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1510 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1511 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1513 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1515 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1516 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1518 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1520 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1521 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1523 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1525 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1526 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1527 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1528 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1529 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1532 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1534 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1535 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1536 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1537 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1540 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1541 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1542 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1543 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1545 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
1547 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
1548 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
1549 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
1552 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
1553 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
1554 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
1555 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
1557 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1559 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1561 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1563 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1566 ** Inline vector allocation
1568 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1569 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1570 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1571 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1574 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1576 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1577 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1581 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1582 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1583 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1584 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1585 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1587 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1589 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1590 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1591 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1592 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1593 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1594 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1598 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1599 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1600 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1601 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1603 ** Deprecate trampolines
1605 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1606 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1607 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1608 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1609 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1611 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
1613 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
1615 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1617 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1618 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1619 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1620 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1622 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1624 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1625 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1626 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1627 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1628 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1629 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1630 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1632 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1634 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1635 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1638 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1639 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1641 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1643 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1644 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1646 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1648 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1649 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1650 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1651 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1653 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1655 * Changes to the distribution
1657 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1659 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1660 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1665 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
1666 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
1668 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1670 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1671 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1673 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1675 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1676 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1677 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1680 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1682 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1683 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1685 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1687 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1688 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1690 ** Parallel installability fixes
1692 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1693 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1694 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1696 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1697 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1698 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1701 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1703 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1704 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1705 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1706 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
1707 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1709 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
1711 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
1712 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
1713 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
1714 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
1715 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
1716 searched before the global site directory.
1718 ** New dependency: libgc
1720 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1722 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1724 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1725 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1727 ** New dependency: libffi
1729 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1733 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1737 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1738 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1739 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1742 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1744 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1746 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1750 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1751 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1752 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1753 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1754 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1755 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1756 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1757 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1758 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1759 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1760 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1762 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1764 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1765 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1766 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1769 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1772 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1774 * New features (see the manual for details)
1776 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1778 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1780 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1781 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1782 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1784 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1786 * Changes to the distribution
1788 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1790 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1791 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1793 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1795 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1796 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1801 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1802 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1803 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1804 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1805 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1806 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1807 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1808 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1809 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1810 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1811 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1812 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1813 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1814 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1816 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1817 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1818 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1819 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1820 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1823 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1825 * Infrastructure changes
1827 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1829 The new repository can be accessed using
1830 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1831 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1833 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1835 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1837 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1841 * New features (see the manual for details)
1843 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1844 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1845 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1847 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1848 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1849 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1850 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1852 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1854 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1855 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1856 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1860 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1861 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1863 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1864 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1866 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1867 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1869 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1870 lead to a stack overflow.
1872 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1873 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1874 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1875 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1876 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1877 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1878 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1879 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1880 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1881 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1882 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1883 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1884 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1885 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1886 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1887 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1890 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1894 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1895 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1896 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1897 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1898 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1899 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1900 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1901 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1902 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1903 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1904 system and library calls.
1905 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1906 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1907 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1908 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1909 uniform vectors on AIX.
1910 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1911 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1912 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1913 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1914 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1916 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1920 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1922 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1924 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1925 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1927 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1929 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1931 * Changes to the distribution
1933 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1935 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1936 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1937 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1939 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1941 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1944 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1946 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1953 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1954 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1955 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1956 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1957 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1958 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1959 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1961 * Implementation improvements
1963 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1964 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1967 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1969 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1971 ** set-program-arguments
1974 * Incompatible changes
1976 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1978 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1979 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1980 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1981 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1986 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1987 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1988 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1989 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1990 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1991 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1993 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1994 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1995 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1996 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1997 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1998 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1999 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2000 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2001 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2002 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2003 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2004 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2005 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2006 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2007 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2008 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2011 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2013 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2015 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2017 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2018 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2019 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2020 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2021 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2022 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2030 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2032 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2034 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2036 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2038 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2040 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2042 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2043 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2044 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2046 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2048 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2050 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2051 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2053 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2055 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2056 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2058 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2060 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2062 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2064 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2066 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2068 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2070 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2072 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2074 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2076 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2077 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2078 file was on a different device.
2081 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2083 * Changes to the distribution
2085 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2087 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2089 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2091 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2093 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2095 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2098 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2100 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2101 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2102 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2103 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2104 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2105 items like the versioned share directory name
2106 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2108 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2109 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2110 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2111 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2112 with each micro release during a stable series.
2114 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2116 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2117 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2118 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2119 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2120 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2123 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2124 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2125 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2126 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2129 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2130 in which case "null" threads are used.
2132 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2133 "Blocking", and others.
2135 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2137 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2139 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2140 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2141 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2142 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2143 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2145 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2146 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2148 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2150 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2151 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2153 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2156 This SRFI is always available.
2158 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2160 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2161 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2162 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2163 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2166 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2168 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2169 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2170 parameters without currying.
2172 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2174 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2175 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2177 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2178 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2181 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2182 with a renaming import, for example.
2184 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2186 The official version is good enough now.
2188 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2190 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2191 provided. Use 'make html'.
2193 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2195 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2196 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2197 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2198 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2200 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2202 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2205 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2207 ** New command line option `-L'.
2209 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2211 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2213 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2214 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2216 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2218 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2219 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2221 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2223 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2224 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2227 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2230 (define-module (demo)
2234 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2237 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2239 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2241 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2242 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2243 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2245 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2247 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2248 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2250 ** New function hashx-remove!
2252 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2254 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2255 barriers and dynamic states.
2257 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2258 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2259 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2262 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2263 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2264 Barriers" in the manual.
2266 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2267 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2269 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2271 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2272 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2273 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2274 variable %load-path.
2276 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2278 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2279 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2281 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2282 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2283 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2285 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2286 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2288 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2289 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2290 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2292 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2293 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2294 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2297 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2298 substrings and read-only strings.
2300 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2301 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2304 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2306 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2315 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2316 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2317 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2319 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2320 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2321 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2322 on an ANSI terminal:
2324 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2325 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2328 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2330 See the manual for details.
2332 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2334 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2337 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2339 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2340 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2341 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2342 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2344 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2345 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2346 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2349 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2351 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2352 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2363 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2367 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2372 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2376 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2380 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2383 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2384 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2385 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2386 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2388 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2389 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2392 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2395 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2399 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2401 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2402 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2403 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2406 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2409 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2411 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2414 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2415 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2418 (define-module (foo)
2423 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2424 has been detected is to
2426 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2427 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2428 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2431 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2434 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2436 to your .guile init file.
2438 ** New define-module option: :replace
2440 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2443 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2444 for the core binding `format'.
2446 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2448 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2449 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2451 (define-module (foo)
2452 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2454 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2457 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2459 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2460 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2461 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2463 ** New function: effective-version
2465 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2466 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2467 to the distribution" above.
2469 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2471 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2472 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2474 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2476 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2477 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2479 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2481 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2482 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2485 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2487 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2489 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2491 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2492 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2493 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2496 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2497 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2498 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2499 'system-async-mark'.
2501 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2502 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2504 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2505 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2506 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2509 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2511 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2512 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2515 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2516 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2518 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2519 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2520 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2521 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2522 level for the current thread.
2524 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2526 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2528 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2529 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2532 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2534 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2536 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2539 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2541 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2544 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2545 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2546 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2548 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2549 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2550 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2551 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2562 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2564 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2567 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2569 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2570 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2571 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2582 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2584 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2585 them is also done exactly, of course:
2590 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2591 for exact arguments.
2593 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2594 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2596 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2598 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2599 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2600 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2602 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2603 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2605 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2607 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2610 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2612 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2613 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2615 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2618 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2619 result when both its arguments are exact.
2621 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2623 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2624 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2625 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2627 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2629 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2630 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2631 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2633 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2636 ** pretty-print has more options.
2638 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2639 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2640 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2642 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2644 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2645 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2646 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2648 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2650 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2651 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2653 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2655 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2656 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2659 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2661 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2662 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2663 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2664 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2665 without the soft port blocking.
2667 ** Deprecated: undefine
2669 There is no replacement for undefine.
2671 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2672 have been discouraged.
2674 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2675 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2676 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2679 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2681 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2683 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2684 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2685 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2686 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2689 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2690 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2691 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2693 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2695 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2696 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2697 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2698 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2699 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2700 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2702 * Changes to the C interface
2704 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2705 take a 'delete' function argument.
2707 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2708 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2710 This is an incompatible change.
2712 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2714 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2715 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2716 --disable-deprecated.
2718 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2720 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2721 Scheme values has been added.
2723 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2724 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2727 - int scm_is_* (...)
2729 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2730 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2732 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2734 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2735 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2738 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2740 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2741 scm_from_int for ints.
2743 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2744 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2745 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2747 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2749 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2750 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2751 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2754 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2756 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2758 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2760 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2761 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2762 following alternatives.
2764 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2765 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2766 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2767 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2769 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2770 do the validating for you.
2772 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2773 have been discouraged.
2775 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2776 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2779 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2781 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2782 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2785 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2787 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2790 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2793 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2795 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2796 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2798 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2799 scm_truncate_number should have.
2801 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2802 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2804 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2807 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2808 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2809 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2811 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2812 easier to use from C.
2814 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2815 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2817 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2818 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2819 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2822 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2823 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2824 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2825 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2828 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2829 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2830 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2831 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2832 and is thus quite efficient.
2834 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2836 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2837 about the character encoding.
2839 Replace according to the following table:
2841 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2842 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2843 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2844 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2845 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2846 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2847 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2848 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2849 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2851 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2852 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2854 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2856 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2857 now also available to C code.
2859 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2861 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2862 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2863 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2865 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2868 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2870 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2871 unceremoniously removed.
2873 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2874 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2875 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2877 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2878 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2879 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2880 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2881 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2882 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2885 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2887 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2888 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2889 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2890 manual for more details.
2892 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2893 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2895 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2896 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2897 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2899 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2901 Migrate according to the following table:
2903 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2904 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2905 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2906 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2907 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2908 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2909 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2911 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2912 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2913 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2914 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2915 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2916 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2917 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2919 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2921 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2922 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2924 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2925 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2926 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2927 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2929 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2931 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2932 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2933 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2935 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2936 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2938 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2939 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2940 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2941 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2943 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2945 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2946 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2947 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2948 prevent a potential memory leak:
2955 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2957 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2958 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2960 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2961 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2968 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2969 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2973 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2975 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2977 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2978 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2979 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2981 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2982 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2984 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2986 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2988 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2989 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2990 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2992 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2993 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2995 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2996 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2997 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2998 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3001 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3003 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3004 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3005 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3007 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3009 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3010 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3012 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3014 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3015 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3017 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3019 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3020 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3021 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3023 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3025 You should not have used them.
3027 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3029 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3030 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3032 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3034 This macro is not intended for public use.
3036 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3038 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3040 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3042 Use scm_is_real instead.
3044 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3046 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3048 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3050 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3051 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3053 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3054 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3056 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3057 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3059 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3061 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3064 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3066 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3067 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3068 to the distribution" above.
3070 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3072 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3073 arguments are now passed directly:
3075 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3077 This is an incompatible change.
3079 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3081 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3082 function in the init section.
3084 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3086 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3088 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3089 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3090 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3091 stays roughly constant.
3093 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3094 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3095 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3096 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3097 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3100 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3101 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3102 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3103 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3105 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3106 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3107 objects for every type.
3110 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3112 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3114 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3116 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3117 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3118 initializes a new cell (see below).
3120 ** New functions for memory management
3122 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3123 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3124 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3125 cause aborts in long running programs.
3127 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3128 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3130 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3131 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3132 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3133 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3134 details and for upgrading instructions.
3136 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3137 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3138 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3140 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3142 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3143 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3144 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3145 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3146 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3148 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3149 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3150 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3152 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3153 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3155 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3157 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3158 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3159 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3160 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3161 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3163 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3165 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3168 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3170 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3172 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3174 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3175 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3177 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3179 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3180 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3182 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3183 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3185 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3187 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3189 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3190 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3191 blocking it is not well defined.
3193 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3195 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3196 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3197 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3198 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3199 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3200 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3201 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3202 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3203 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3204 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3205 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3206 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3207 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3208 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3209 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3210 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3211 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3212 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3213 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3214 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3215 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3216 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3217 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3218 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3219 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3220 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3221 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3222 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3223 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3224 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3225 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3227 * Changes to bundled modules
3231 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3232 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3233 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3234 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3235 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3238 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3240 * Changes to the distribution
3242 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3244 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3246 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3247 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3248 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3249 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3250 indicate major changes in Guile.
3252 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3253 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3254 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3255 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3257 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3258 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3259 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3260 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3261 micro version number.
3263 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3265 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3267 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3268 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3270 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3272 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3273 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3274 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3276 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3278 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3279 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3280 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3283 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3285 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3288 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3290 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3291 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3293 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3295 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3296 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3299 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3301 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3304 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3307 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3309 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3311 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3312 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3313 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3315 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3317 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3319 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3322 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3324 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3326 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3328 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3329 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3330 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3332 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3334 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3336 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3337 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3346 See README there for more info.
3348 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3349 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3352 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3354 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3356 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3358 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3359 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3360 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3362 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3364 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3365 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3366 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3368 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3369 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3371 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3374 (oop goops describe)
3376 (oop goops active-slot)
3377 (oop goops composite-slot)
3379 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3380 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3381 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3383 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3385 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3386 in the default environment:
3388 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3389 %read-line write-line
3391 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3392 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3394 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3396 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3399 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3400 can be used for similar functionality.
3402 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3404 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3405 it defines two procedures:
3407 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3409 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3410 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3411 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3414 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3416 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3417 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3418 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3419 write large strings.
3421 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3423 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3424 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3426 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3428 for complete documentation.
3430 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3432 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3433 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3434 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3435 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3437 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3438 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3442 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3443 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3444 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3447 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3450 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3451 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3453 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3454 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3457 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3460 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3462 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3464 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3466 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3468 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3469 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3470 Scheme programs easier.
3472 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3473 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3474 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3475 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3476 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3479 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3480 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3482 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3485 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3487 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3488 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3489 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3492 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3494 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3496 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3497 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3498 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3499 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3500 was also ASCII, for example.
3502 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3504 tag - no replacement.
3505 fseek - replaced by seek.
3506 list* - replaced by cons*.
3508 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3512 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3513 (define m (make-safe-module))
3514 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3515 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3516 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3518 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3520 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3521 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3522 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3524 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3526 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3527 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3528 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3529 from the issues related to the module system.
3531 *** New function: load-extension
3533 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3535 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3537 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3538 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3539 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3541 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3543 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3544 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3545 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3546 support dynamic linking).
3548 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3550 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3551 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3552 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3553 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3556 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3557 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3558 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3559 library and initialize it explicitly.
3561 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3562 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3564 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3566 (define-module (foo bar))
3568 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3570 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3572 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3573 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3575 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3576 (null-environment 5)
3577 (interaction-environment)
3583 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3585 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3586 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3587 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3588 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3590 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3591 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3592 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3593 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3594 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3595 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3596 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3597 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3598 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3599 one eval to the next.
3601 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3602 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3603 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3604 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3605 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3607 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3608 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3609 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3610 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3611 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3612 used in a lexical environment.
3614 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3615 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3616 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3617 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3618 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3619 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3621 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3623 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3624 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3625 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3626 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3627 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3629 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3630 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3631 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3633 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3634 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3636 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3637 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3638 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3640 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3641 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3643 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3644 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3645 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3646 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3649 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3650 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3651 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3652 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3654 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3655 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3656 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3658 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3659 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3660 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3661 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3662 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3664 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3666 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3667 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3668 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3670 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3671 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3672 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3674 See manual for more info.
3676 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3678 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3679 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3680 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3682 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3684 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3685 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3686 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3688 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3689 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3690 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3691 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3693 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3695 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3696 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3698 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3699 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3700 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3701 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3702 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3705 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3706 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3707 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3708 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3709 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3710 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3712 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3713 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3714 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3715 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3716 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3718 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3719 objects are usually permanent.
3721 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3722 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3724 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3726 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3727 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3730 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3734 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3739 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3741 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3742 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3743 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3744 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3746 ** New function `make-object-property'
3748 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3749 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3753 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3754 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3758 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3759 source properties eventually.
3761 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3763 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3764 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3765 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3767 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3768 will be removed in the next release.
3770 ** New define-module option: pure
3772 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3777 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3780 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3782 Export names NAME1 ...
3784 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3785 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3789 (define-module (foo)
3791 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3794 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3799 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3801 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3803 ** New function: port? X
3805 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3806 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3808 ** New function: file-port?
3810 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3812 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3814 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3815 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3816 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3817 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3818 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3820 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3822 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3823 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3824 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3825 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3826 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3829 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3831 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3832 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3833 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3834 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3837 ** New function: crypt password salt
3839 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3842 ** New function: chroot path
3844 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3846 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3848 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3851 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3853 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3855 ** New function: getpass prompt
3857 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3860 ** New function: flock file operation
3862 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3864 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3866 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3869 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3871 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3872 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3873 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3874 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3875 of the temporary file.
3877 ** New function: open-input-string string
3879 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3880 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3881 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3883 ** New function: open-output-string
3885 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3886 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3888 ** New function: get-output-string
3890 Return the contents of an output string port.
3892 ** New function: identity
3894 Return the argument.
3896 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3897 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3899 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3901 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3902 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3903 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3906 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3907 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3909 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3911 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3912 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3913 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3916 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3917 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3918 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3922 Use `identity' instead.
3928 ** Deprecated: return-it
3932 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3934 Use `string-length' instead.
3936 ** Deprecated: flags
3938 Use `logior' instead.
3940 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3942 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3943 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3944 port-for-each is more flexible.
3946 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3947 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3948 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3950 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3952 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3954 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3956 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3958 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3960 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3961 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3963 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3964 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3966 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3967 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3969 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3971 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3972 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3974 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3975 Use module system operations for all variables.
3977 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3979 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3982 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3984 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3985 The following bugs have been fixed:
3987 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3988 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3991 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3992 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3993 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3995 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3996 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3998 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3999 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4002 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4003 The expansion used to be like so:
4005 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4007 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4009 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4011 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4012 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4014 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4016 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4017 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4018 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4022 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4023 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4025 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4030 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4031 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4033 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4034 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4035 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4037 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4040 * Changes to the C interface
4042 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4044 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4045 with "_t". What a concept.
4047 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4049 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4051 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4055 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4056 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4058 *** C Functions removed
4060 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4061 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4062 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4063 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4064 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4065 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4066 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4068 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4070 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4072 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4074 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4076 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4077 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4079 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4081 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4084 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4086 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4088 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4090 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4091 Evaluation" in the manual.
4093 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4095 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4096 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4098 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4100 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4101 Constructors" in the manual.
4103 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4105 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4106 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4108 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4110 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4112 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4113 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4114 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4116 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4118 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4120 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4121 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4122 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4125 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4127 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4129 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4130 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4132 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4134 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4135 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4136 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4137 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4139 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4140 scm_primitive_property_ref
4141 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4142 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4144 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4145 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4147 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4149 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4150 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4151 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4152 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4154 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4156 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4157 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4158 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4159 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4160 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4161 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4162 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4164 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4165 scm_remember_upto_here
4167 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4169 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4171 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4172 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4174 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4176 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4178 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4180 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4182 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4184 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4185 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4186 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4187 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4188 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4189 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4191 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4193 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4195 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4196 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4197 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4199 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4201 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4202 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4203 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4205 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4207 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4208 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4211 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4214 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4215 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4218 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4220 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4222 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4224 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4226 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4228 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4230 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4231 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4232 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4233 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4234 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4235 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4236 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4237 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4238 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4239 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4240 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4241 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4242 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4243 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4244 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4246 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4247 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4248 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4249 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4250 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4251 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4252 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4253 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4254 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4255 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4256 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4257 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4258 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4259 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4260 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4261 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4262 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4263 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4264 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4265 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4266 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4267 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4268 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4269 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4270 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4271 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4272 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4273 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4274 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4276 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4278 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4280 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4281 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4283 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4285 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4287 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4289 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4291 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4293 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4295 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4297 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4299 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4302 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4303 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4305 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4307 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4309 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4311 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4313 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4315 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4317 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4319 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4322 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4324 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4326 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4328 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4329 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4331 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4332 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4334 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4336 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4337 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4338 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4340 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4342 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4344 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4345 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4347 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4348 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4349 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4350 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4352 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4353 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4354 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4356 Use the new ones from above instead.
4358 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4360 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4361 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4362 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4364 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4365 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4367 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4368 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4371 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4372 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4374 Use the new functions instead.
4376 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4379 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4381 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4383 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4386 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4388 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4391 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4393 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4396 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4397 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4398 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4400 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4402 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4403 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4405 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4406 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4407 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4408 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4411 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4413 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4414 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4415 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4416 inexact for an exact.
4418 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4419 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4420 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4423 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4424 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4425 accept an inexact argument.
4427 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4428 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4430 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4433 ** New number validation macros:
4434 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4438 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4440 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4441 scm_unprotect_object.
4443 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4445 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4447 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4450 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4452 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4456 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4458 * Changes to the distribution
4460 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4462 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4463 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4464 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4465 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4466 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4467 obtain these programs.
4468 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4469 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4471 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4472 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4473 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4474 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4475 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4477 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4478 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4479 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4480 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4484 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4487 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4488 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4489 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4490 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4492 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4494 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4496 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4497 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4499 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4500 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4502 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4503 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4505 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4506 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4507 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4508 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4510 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4512 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4516 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4517 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4519 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4521 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4522 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4524 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4525 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4526 number of objects of that kind.
4528 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4530 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4531 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4532 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4533 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4534 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4536 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4538 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4540 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4542 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4545 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4547 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4549 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4551 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4553 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4555 ** New command line option --debug
4557 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4559 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4561 ** New help facility
4563 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4564 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4565 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4566 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4567 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4568 (help) gives this text
4570 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4571 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4573 Examples: (help help)
4575 (help "output-string")
4577 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4579 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4581 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4582 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4585 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4586 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4587 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4590 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4591 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4592 use absolute filenames when possible.
4594 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4595 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4596 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4599 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4601 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4602 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4603 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4604 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4606 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4608 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4610 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4611 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4612 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4614 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4615 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4616 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4618 (read-enable 'positions)
4619 (debug-enable 'debug)
4621 ** Backtraces in scripts
4623 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4627 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4629 at the top of the script.
4631 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4632 The second enables backtraces.)
4634 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4636 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4637 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4638 substantially faster than before.
4640 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4641 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4643 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4644 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4646 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4648 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4649 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4650 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4652 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4653 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4654 when this hook is run in the future.
4656 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4657 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4659 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4661 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4662 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4665 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4666 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4667 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4669 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4670 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4672 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4673 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4675 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4676 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4677 in order not to need further allocation.)
4679 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4682 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4683 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4684 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4685 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4687 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4689 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4692 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4694 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4697 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4698 GC in percent of total heap size
4701 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4702 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4704 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4706 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4707 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4709 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4711 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4712 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4714 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4716 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4717 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4721 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4722 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4724 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4726 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4728 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4730 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4732 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4734 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4735 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4737 (simple-format port message . args)
4738 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4739 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4740 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4741 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4742 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4743 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4744 Does not add a trailing newline."
4746 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4748 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4749 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4751 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4752 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4754 ** Deprecated: list*
4756 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4758 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4760 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4761 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4763 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4764 is returned as result.
4766 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4768 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4770 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4772 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4773 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4776 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4778 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4780 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4781 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4783 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4785 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4787 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4789 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4791 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4793 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4795 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4797 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4798 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4799 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4801 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4804 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4806 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4807 the readability of argument checking.
4809 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4811 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4813 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4815 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4816 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4817 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4818 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4819 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4820 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4821 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4823 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4825 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4827 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4828 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4830 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4832 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4833 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4836 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4838 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4839 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4840 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4842 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4843 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4844 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4846 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4847 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4848 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4849 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4850 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4851 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4852 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4854 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4855 scm_end_input (object);
4856 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4857 ptob->flush (object);
4859 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4860 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4863 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4865 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4867 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4868 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4869 removed in a future version.
4871 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4873 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4874 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4875 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4876 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4878 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4879 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4881 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4884 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4886 in your configure.in.
4888 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4893 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4899 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4901 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4905 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4906 (define make-message string-append)
4908 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4910 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4914 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4919 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4923 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4925 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4926 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4928 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4930 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4931 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4932 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4933 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4934 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4935 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4937 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4938 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4939 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4941 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4942 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4943 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4946 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4947 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4948 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4949 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4950 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4952 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4953 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4954 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4955 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4956 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4957 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4958 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4960 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4962 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4963 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4964 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4966 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4967 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4968 KEY in the calling thread.
4970 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4971 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4972 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4973 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4974 associated with the key.
4976 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4978 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4979 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4981 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4983 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4984 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4985 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4987 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4989 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4990 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4992 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4994 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4996 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4997 returned is undefined.
4999 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5000 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5001 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5003 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5004 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5005 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5007 ** New C level GC hooks
5009 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5011 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5014 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5015 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5016 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5018 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5019 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5020 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5022 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5023 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5026 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5028 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5029 allocation parameters
5031 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5032 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5033 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5037 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5038 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5039 scm_default_max_segment_size
5041 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5043 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5044 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5046 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5048 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5049 object and count on the object being protected until
5050 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5052 The functions also have better time complexity.
5054 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5055 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5056 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5057 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5058 are no longer needed.
5060 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5062 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5063 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5064 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5065 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5067 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5069 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5071 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5073 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5074 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5075 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5076 until this issue has been settled.
5078 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5080 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5082 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5085 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5087 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5089 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5090 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5091 descriptors were checked.
5093 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5094 atomically written to a pipe.
5096 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5097 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5098 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5099 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5100 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5101 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5102 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5105 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5106 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5107 is changed without calling tzset.
5109 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5111 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5112 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5113 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5115 (define write-network-long
5116 (lambda (value port)
5117 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5118 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5119 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5121 (define read-network-long
5123 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5124 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5125 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5127 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5128 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5130 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5131 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5132 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5133 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5135 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5136 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5137 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5138 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5142 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5144 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5148 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5149 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5150 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5156 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5157 for a description of available commands.
5159 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5160 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5161 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5163 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5165 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5166 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5168 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5170 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5172 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5173 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5174 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5175 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5176 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5177 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5180 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5182 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5183 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5184 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5185 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5187 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5188 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5190 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5192 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5194 ** Readline support has changed again.
5196 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5197 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5198 to activate readline is now
5200 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5203 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5205 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5206 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5207 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5210 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5211 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5212 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5215 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5216 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5217 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5218 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5219 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5220 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5222 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5223 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5225 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5227 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5228 object it receives is the same string passed to
5229 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5230 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5231 string, not the suffix.
5233 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5234 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5235 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5237 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5239 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5240 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5241 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5242 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5245 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5247 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5249 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5250 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5251 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5252 appear from left to right.
5254 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5257 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5259 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5260 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5262 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5266 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5268 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5270 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5272 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5273 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5274 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5276 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5278 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5280 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5282 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5285 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5287 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5288 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5289 mentioning it here anyway.
5291 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5293 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5294 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5295 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5296 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5299 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5301 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5303 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5305 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5306 otherwise return #f.
5308 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5310 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5311 returned by `opendir'.
5313 ** New function: using-readline?
5315 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5317 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5319 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5320 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5322 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5324 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5326 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5327 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5328 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5330 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5332 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5333 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5335 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5337 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5338 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5339 documentation slots are not yet used.
5341 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5343 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5344 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5345 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5350 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5351 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5352 (string-append x y))
5354 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5355 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5357 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5358 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5359 be made in a clean way.]
5361 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5363 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5365 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5367 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5368 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5370 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5372 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5374 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5376 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5378 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5379 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5380 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5381 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5384 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5386 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5388 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5390 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5392 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5393 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5395 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5397 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5399 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5401 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5403 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5404 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5405 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5406 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5407 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5408 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5410 This should not make any difference for most users.
5412 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5414 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5415 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5417 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5419 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5420 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5421 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5422 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5423 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5425 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5427 It is now replaced by:
5429 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5431 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5432 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5434 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5436 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5437 This might change when we get the new module system.
5439 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5443 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5445 * Changes to mailing lists
5447 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5449 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5452 * Changes to the distribution
5454 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5456 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5457 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5458 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5459 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5460 you explicitly specify it.
5462 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5463 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5464 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5465 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5466 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5469 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5470 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5471 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5472 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5474 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5475 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5476 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5479 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5481 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5484 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5486 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5488 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5489 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5490 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5491 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5493 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5494 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5497 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5499 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5500 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5501 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5502 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5503 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5504 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5505 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5506 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5518 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5519 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5520 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5521 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5522 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5527 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5528 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5536 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5541 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5542 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5545 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5546 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5547 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5548 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5550 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5552 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5554 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5555 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5557 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5559 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5561 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5562 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5564 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5567 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5569 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5571 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5573 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5575 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5577 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5579 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5580 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5581 when the hook was created.
5583 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5584 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5585 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5586 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5587 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5588 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5589 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5590 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5591 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5593 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5594 the dlopen family of functions.
5596 ** New function `provided?'
5598 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5599 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5600 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5601 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5603 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5605 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5606 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5607 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5608 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5611 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5612 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5613 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5614 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5616 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5617 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5618 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5621 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5622 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5623 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5624 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5625 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5626 but with the flag set.
5628 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5630 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5631 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5633 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5634 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5635 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5636 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5637 available Scheme format implementations.
5639 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5640 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5641 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5642 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5643 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5644 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5645 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5646 output is to the current error port if available by the
5647 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5650 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5651 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5652 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5653 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5654 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5655 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5656 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5657 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5659 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5660 be executed at a time.
5663 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5665 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5666 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5667 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5669 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5670 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5671 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5672 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5673 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5674 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5675 general form of a directive is:
5677 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5679 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5681 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5683 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5684 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5685 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5688 Any (print as `display' does).
5692 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5696 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5700 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5706 print number sign always.
5709 print comma separated.
5711 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5717 print number sign always.
5720 print comma separated.
5722 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5728 print number sign always.
5731 print comma separated.
5733 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5739 print number sign always.
5742 print comma separated.
5744 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5749 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5753 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5756 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5759 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5762 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5767 prints `y' and `ies'.
5770 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5773 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5778 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5782 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5785 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5786 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5788 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5791 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5792 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5794 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5797 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5799 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5801 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5804 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5806 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5808 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5811 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5814 The sign appears before the padding.
5822 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5824 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5829 print N page separators.
5839 newline is ignored, white space left.
5842 newline is left, white space ignored.
5847 relative tabulation.
5853 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5855 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5858 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5860 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5863 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5866 converts by `string-upcase'.
5869 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5871 jumps N arguments forward.
5874 jumps 1 argument backward.
5877 jumps N arguments backward.
5880 jumps to the 0th argument.
5883 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5885 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5886 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5888 take argument from N.
5891 true test conditional.
5894 if-else-then conditional.
5900 default clause follows.
5903 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5905 at most N iterations.
5908 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5911 args from the rest of arguments.
5914 args from the rest args (lists).
5925 aborts if N <= M <= K
5927 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5930 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5933 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5939 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5941 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5943 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5944 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5945 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5946 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5947 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5948 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5952 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5956 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5962 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5965 Print a `#\space' character
5967 print N `#\space' characters.
5970 Print a `#\tab' character
5972 print N `#\tab' characters.
5975 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5976 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5977 must be a positive decimal number.
5980 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5981 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5982 be processed by `read'.
5985 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5986 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5987 be processed by `read'.
5990 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5993 prints format version.
5996 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5997 and format it accordingly.
5999 *** Configuration Variables
6001 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6002 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6003 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6004 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6007 format:symbol-case-conv
6008 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6009 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6010 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6011 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6012 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6014 format:iobj-case-conv
6015 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6016 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6019 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6022 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6028 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6029 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6030 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6031 `format' padding style.
6034 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6035 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6036 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6037 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6041 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6042 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6043 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6046 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6047 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6048 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6049 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6050 parameters or modifiers)).
6053 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6055 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6057 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6058 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6060 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6061 string-downcase! functions.
6063 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6064 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6066 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6069 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6072 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6073 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6075 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6077 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6078 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6080 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6081 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6082 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6083 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6084 would if STRING were input.
6086 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6088 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6089 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6090 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6091 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6094 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6096 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6097 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6100 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6102 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6103 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6105 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6106 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6108 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6109 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6110 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6111 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6113 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6114 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6116 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6117 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6118 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6120 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6121 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6123 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6124 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6125 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6126 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6127 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6129 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6130 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6131 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6132 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6133 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6134 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6136 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6137 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6138 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6141 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6142 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6143 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6144 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6145 the following grammar:
6146 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6147 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6148 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6149 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6150 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6151 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6152 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6153 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6154 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6155 last option in its combination)
6157 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6158 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6159 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6160 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6162 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6163 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6164 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6166 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6167 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6168 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6170 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6171 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6172 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6173 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6174 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6175 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6176 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6177 ordinary argument strings.
6179 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6180 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6181 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6182 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6184 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6185 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6187 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6188 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6189 - a required option is omitted
6190 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6191 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6192 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6193 - an option predicate fails
6198 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6201 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6202 (verbose (required? #f)
6205 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6206 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6207 (predicate ,string?))))
6209 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6210 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6212 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6213 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6214 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6215 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6218 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6220 It will be removed in a few releases.
6222 ** New syntax: lambda*
6223 ** New syntax: define*
6224 ** New syntax: define*-public
6225 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6226 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6227 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6229 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6230 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6231 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6232 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6233 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6235 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6236 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6237 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6239 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6241 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6242 and examples for `lambda*':
6245 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6247 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6248 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6249 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6250 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6251 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6252 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6253 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6254 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6256 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6258 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6259 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6260 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6261 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6263 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6264 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6265 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6266 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6267 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6268 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6269 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6270 and until the procedure is called.
6272 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6274 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6275 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6276 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6277 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6278 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6279 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6280 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6281 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6282 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6283 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6285 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6286 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6287 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6288 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6291 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6293 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6294 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6295 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6296 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6298 ** New syntax: and-let*
6299 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6301 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6302 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6303 (<variable> <expression>)
6306 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6307 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6308 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6311 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6312 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6313 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6314 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6315 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6316 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6317 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6319 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6320 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6321 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6322 shadow earlier bindings.
6324 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6326 ** New sorting functions
6328 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6329 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6330 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6331 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6333 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6334 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6337 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6338 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6339 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6341 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6342 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6343 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6344 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6346 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6347 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6348 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6349 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6350 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6353 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6354 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6355 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6356 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6357 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6358 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6360 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6361 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6362 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6364 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6365 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6366 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6369 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6370 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6371 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6373 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6374 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6376 ** New built-in random number support
6378 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6379 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6380 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6381 returned have a uniform distribution.
6383 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6384 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6385 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6386 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6387 effect of the `random' operation.
6389 *** New variable: *random-state*
6390 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6391 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6392 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6393 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6394 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6397 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6398 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6399 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6400 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6401 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6403 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6404 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6405 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6406 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6407 initialized using SEED.
6409 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6410 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6411 range between 0 and 1.
6413 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6414 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6415 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6416 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6417 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6418 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6419 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6421 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6422 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6423 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6424 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6425 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6426 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6428 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6429 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6430 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6431 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6433 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6434 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6435 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6436 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6438 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6439 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6440 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6442 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6444 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6447 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6448 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6451 ** New function: make-guardian
6452 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6453 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6454 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6455 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6456 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6458 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6459 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6460 one object if at all.
6462 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6463 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6464 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6466 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6467 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6468 read again in last-in first-out order.
6470 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6471 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6473 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6475 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6476 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6477 file position is used.
6479 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6480 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6481 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6483 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6484 redefined using seek.
6486 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6487 size is not supplied.
6489 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6490 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6492 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6493 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6495 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6497 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6498 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6499 and returns the contents as a single string.
6501 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6502 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6503 lists in serial order.
6505 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6506 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6507 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6509 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6510 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6511 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6512 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6514 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6515 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6516 and #f if an error occured.
6518 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6520 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6521 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6522 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6523 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6525 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6527 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6530 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6532 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6535 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6539 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6540 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6542 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6543 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6547 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6549 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6551 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6552 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6554 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6556 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6557 might change when we get the new module system.
6559 ** The smob interface
6561 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6562 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6564 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6566 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6570 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6571 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6572 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6573 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6574 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6575 will be freed by the default free function.
6577 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6578 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6579 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6580 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6582 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6583 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6584 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6585 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6587 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6589 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6590 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6594 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6595 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6596 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6598 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6599 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6600 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6601 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6603 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6604 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6605 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6607 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6608 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6609 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6610 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6612 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6613 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6614 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6616 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6620 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6622 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6623 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6624 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6626 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6627 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6628 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6630 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6631 a string port's buffer.
6633 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6634 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6635 function pointers which together define the current random number
6636 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6637 number library functions.
6639 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6642 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6643 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6646 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6647 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6649 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6650 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6652 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6653 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6656 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6657 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6658 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6659 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6661 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6662 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6663 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6664 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6665 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6666 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6667 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6669 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6670 by libguile and the application.
6672 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6673 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6674 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6675 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6677 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6678 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6680 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6681 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6682 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6684 ** Random number library functions
6685 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6686 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6687 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6689 The default random state is stored in:
6691 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6692 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6693 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6698 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6700 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6701 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6702 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6703 isn't a random state.
6705 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6706 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6708 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6709 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6710 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6711 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6713 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6714 Return 32 random bits.
6716 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6717 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6719 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6720 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6722 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6723 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6725 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6726 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6728 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6729 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6730 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6734 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6736 * Changes to the distribution
6738 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6739 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6740 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6743 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6744 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6745 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6747 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6748 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6749 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6750 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6753 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6754 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6755 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6757 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6759 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6761 *** Function: batch-mode?
6763 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6766 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6768 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6769 case has not been implemented.
6771 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6772 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6773 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6776 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6777 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6779 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6781 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6783 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6785 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6786 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6789 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6790 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6791 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6792 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6795 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6797 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6798 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6799 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6800 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6801 find those libraries.
6803 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6804 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6807 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6809 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6810 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6811 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6812 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6814 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6815 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6816 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6820 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6822 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6823 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6824 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6827 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6828 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6829 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6830 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6832 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6833 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6836 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6837 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6838 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6839 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6840 compiler where to find the libraries.
6842 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6843 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6844 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6846 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6847 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6848 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6849 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6850 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6854 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6856 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6857 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6858 internationalization support.
6860 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6861 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6862 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6863 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6864 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6866 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6867 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6868 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6869 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6870 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6872 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6873 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6874 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6875 any GNU mirror site.
6877 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6879 ** New function: add-history STRING
6880 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6881 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6882 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6884 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6886 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6887 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6888 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6891 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6892 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6893 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6895 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6897 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6900 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6901 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6904 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6905 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6906 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6907 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6908 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6909 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6911 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6912 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6913 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6914 of the form mentioned above.
6916 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6917 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6918 returned in the special `rest' list.
6920 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6921 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6923 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6925 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6927 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6929 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6930 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6931 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6932 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6933 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6934 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6935 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6936 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6939 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6941 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6943 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6944 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6947 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6948 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6949 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6953 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6954 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6955 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6956 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6957 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6958 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6959 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6960 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6963 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6965 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6966 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6967 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6969 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6971 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6972 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6974 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6975 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6976 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6978 Why do we have this function?
6979 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6980 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6981 primitive, and display it differently, and
6982 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6983 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6986 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6987 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6990 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6991 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6992 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6993 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6995 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6996 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6999 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7000 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7002 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7004 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7005 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7006 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7007 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7008 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7009 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7010 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7013 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7015 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7016 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7018 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7019 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7020 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7021 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7022 properly continue the print chain.
7024 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7025 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7026 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7027 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7028 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7029 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7030 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7031 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7033 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7034 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7035 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7036 safest to not check for these pairs.
7038 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7039 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7040 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7041 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7043 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7045 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7046 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7048 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7050 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7052 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7053 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7054 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7056 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7057 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7058 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7060 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7061 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7062 the following functions and macros:
7064 Function: make-fluid
7066 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7067 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7068 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7069 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7070 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7072 Function: fluid? OBJ
7074 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7076 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7077 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7079 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7080 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7082 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7084 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7085 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7086 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7087 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7088 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7089 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7090 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7092 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7094 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7095 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7096 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7097 should evaluate to a fluid.
7099 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7101 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7102 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7103 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7104 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7105 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7107 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7110 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7112 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7114 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7116 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7119 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7120 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7121 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7122 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7123 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7126 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7127 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7128 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7130 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7131 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7132 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7134 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7135 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7136 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7137 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7139 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7140 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7141 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7142 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7144 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7145 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7146 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7147 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7149 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7150 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7151 their revealed counts set to zero.
7153 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7154 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7156 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7157 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7159 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7160 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7162 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7163 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7164 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7166 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7167 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7168 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7170 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7171 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7172 default environment inherited by child processes.
7174 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7175 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7176 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7178 The return value is unspecified.
7180 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7181 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7182 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7183 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7184 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7186 The return value is unspecified.
7188 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7189 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7197 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7198 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7201 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7204 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7205 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7206 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7208 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7209 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7210 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7211 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7214 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7215 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7217 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7218 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7219 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7220 the `environ' procedure.
7222 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7223 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7226 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7227 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7229 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7230 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7231 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7232 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7234 *** procedure: times
7235 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7236 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7237 return a selected component:
7240 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7244 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7247 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7251 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7252 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7256 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7257 terminated child processes.
7259 ** Removed: list-length
7260 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7261 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7263 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7265 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7267 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7269 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7270 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7271 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7272 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7274 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7275 extra complexity it introduces.
7277 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7278 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7280 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7281 variable to any non-empty value.
7283 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7284 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7286 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7288 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7289 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7291 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7293 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7294 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7296 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7298 ** vector handling routines
7300 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7301 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7302 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7303 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7304 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7306 ** pair and list routines
7308 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7311 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7313 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7316 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7318 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7320 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7321 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7322 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7323 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7324 site-specific initialization code.
7326 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7327 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7328 initialization processes.
7330 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7331 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7332 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7333 initialized properly.
7335 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7336 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7337 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7339 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7340 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7341 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7342 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7343 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7345 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7347 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7348 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7349 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7350 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7351 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7353 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7354 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7355 which look like this:
7358 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7360 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7361 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7364 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7365 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7368 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7370 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7371 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7372 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7374 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7375 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7376 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7377 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7378 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7380 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7381 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7383 int (*free) (SCM port);
7384 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7385 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7386 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7390 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7391 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7392 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7394 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7397 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7398 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7399 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7401 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7402 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7403 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7406 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7410 struct timeval *timeout);
7412 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7413 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7414 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7415 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7416 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7417 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7419 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7420 scm_catch_body_t body,
7422 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7425 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7426 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7427 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7428 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7429 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7430 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7432 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7434 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7437 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7438 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7439 spawning threads from application C code.
7441 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7442 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7443 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7444 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7445 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7446 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7448 ** Removed functions:
7450 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7451 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7453 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7455 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7456 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7458 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7460 ** mbstrings are now removed
7462 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7463 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7465 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7467 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7468 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7469 their new names and arguments:
7471 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7472 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7473 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7474 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7477 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7479 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7481 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7484 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7486 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7487 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7488 pass a #f arg to catch.
7490 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7492 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7493 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7496 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7497 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7498 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7499 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7500 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7501 reclaim its storage.
7503 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7504 worrying that some other function you call will call
7505 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7506 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7507 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7508 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7511 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7513 * Changes to the distribution
7515 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7516 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7519 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7520 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7522 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7523 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7525 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7527 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7528 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7529 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7531 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7533 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7534 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7535 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7536 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7537 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7538 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7540 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7541 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7542 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7545 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7546 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7547 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7548 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7550 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7551 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7552 libraries to your link command:
7554 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7555 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7556 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7557 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7559 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7560 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7561 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7563 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7565 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7566 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7569 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7571 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7572 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7573 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7574 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7575 searched is system dependent.
7577 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7579 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7581 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7583 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7584 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7586 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7588 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7589 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7590 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7591 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7592 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7595 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7597 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7598 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7599 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7600 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7601 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7603 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7605 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7606 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7608 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7610 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7611 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7612 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7615 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7617 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7618 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7619 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7620 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7622 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7623 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7625 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7627 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7628 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7630 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7632 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7633 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7641 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7643 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7644 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7645 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7646 a more informative way.
7648 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7649 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7650 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7651 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7652 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7653 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7655 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7656 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7659 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7660 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7661 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7664 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7665 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7666 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7667 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7668 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7669 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7671 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7672 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7673 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7674 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7677 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7678 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7679 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7680 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7681 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7682 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7684 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7685 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7686 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7687 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7688 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7690 *** regexp functions
7692 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7693 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7694 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7696 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7697 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7698 with SCSH regular expressions.
7700 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7701 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7702 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7703 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7705 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7706 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7707 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7708 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7710 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7711 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7712 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7713 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7714 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7715 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7717 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7718 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7719 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7720 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7721 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7723 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7725 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7726 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7727 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7728 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7730 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7731 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7732 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7734 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7735 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7737 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7740 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7741 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7742 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7744 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7745 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7746 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7748 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7749 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7750 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7751 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7752 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7755 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7757 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7758 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7759 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7760 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7761 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7762 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7764 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7765 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7766 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7768 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7769 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7772 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7773 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7775 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7776 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7777 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7778 may be one of the following arguments:
7780 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7782 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7784 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7785 the regexp match is written.
7787 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7788 following the regexp match is written.
7790 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7791 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7794 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7795 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7796 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7797 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7798 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7799 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7801 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7804 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7805 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7806 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7807 written out to PORT.
7809 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7810 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7811 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7812 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7813 will return after processing a single match.
7815 *** Match Structures
7817 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7818 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7819 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7820 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7821 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7822 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7825 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7826 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7827 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7828 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7829 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7831 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7832 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7833 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7835 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7836 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7837 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7838 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7839 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7841 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7842 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7844 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7845 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7847 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7848 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7850 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7851 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7853 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7854 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7855 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7856 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7858 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7859 Return the original TARGET string.
7861 *** Backslash Escapes
7863 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7864 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7865 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7866 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7867 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7868 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7870 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7871 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7872 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7873 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7874 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7875 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7876 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7877 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7879 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7880 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7881 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7882 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7883 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7884 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7885 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7887 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7888 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7889 return the resulting string.
7891 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7892 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7893 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7894 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7895 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7896 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7897 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7898 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7899 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7900 translated to the single character `*'.
7902 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7903 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7904 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7905 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7906 consecutive backslashes:
7908 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7910 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7911 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7912 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7914 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7915 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7916 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7917 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7918 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7919 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7921 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7923 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7924 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7925 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7926 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7927 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7928 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7929 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7930 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7931 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7932 cumbersome escape syntax.
7934 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7936 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7938 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7940 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7943 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7945 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7947 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7950 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7951 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7952 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7953 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7954 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7956 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7957 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7958 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7959 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7960 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7961 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7962 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7965 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7966 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7967 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7970 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7971 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7973 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7974 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7975 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7976 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7977 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7978 installed, you can say:
7980 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7983 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7985 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7986 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7987 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7988 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7989 new dynamic roots and threads.
7992 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7994 * Changes to the distribution.
7996 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7998 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7999 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8000 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8001 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8002 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8003 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8004 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8005 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8007 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8010 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8011 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8016 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8018 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8019 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8021 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8022 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8023 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8024 the (command-line) function.
8025 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8026 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8027 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8029 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8030 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8031 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8032 command line arguments
8033 -ds do -s script at this point
8034 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8035 -h, --help display this help and exit
8036 -v, --version display version information and exit
8037 \ read arguments from following script lines
8039 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8040 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8042 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8045 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8049 (main (command-line))
8051 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8053 ekko a speckled gecko
8055 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8056 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8057 following list of command-line arguments:
8059 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8061 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8062 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8063 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8064 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8065 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8067 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8069 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8071 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8072 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8075 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8076 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8077 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8078 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8080 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8081 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8082 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8083 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8085 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8089 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8093 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8095 ekko a speckled gecko
8097 Unix expands this into
8099 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8101 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8102 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8104 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8106 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8107 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8109 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8110 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8111 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8112 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8113 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8114 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8115 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8116 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8117 it only terminates the argument list.)
8118 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8119 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8120 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8121 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8122 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8123 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8124 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8125 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8127 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8129 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8130 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8131 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8132 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8133 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8135 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8136 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8137 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8139 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8141 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8142 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8143 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8144 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8147 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8148 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8149 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8151 * Changes to Scheme functions
8153 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8154 and disabled by default.
8156 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8157 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8158 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8159 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8161 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8163 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8165 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8166 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8168 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8169 (read-set! keywords #f)
8171 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8172 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8173 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8176 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8177 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8178 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8181 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8182 support for Scheme functions.
8184 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8185 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8186 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8187 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8190 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8191 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8192 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8195 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8196 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8197 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8200 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8201 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8202 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8203 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8204 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8205 display the result as a prompt.
8206 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8208 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8209 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8210 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8213 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8214 procedure of zero arguments.
8216 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8217 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8218 argument is bound in the current module.
8220 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8221 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8222 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8223 public bindings into the current module.
8225 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8226 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8228 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8229 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8231 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8232 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8234 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8235 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8237 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8238 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8240 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8241 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8242 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8243 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8244 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8246 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8247 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8248 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8249 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8251 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8254 ** Changes to I/O functions
8256 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8257 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8258 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8260 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8261 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8262 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8264 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8265 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8267 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8268 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8269 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8270 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8272 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8274 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8275 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8277 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8278 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8279 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8280 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8281 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8284 'trim omit delimiter from result
8285 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8286 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8287 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8289 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8291 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8292 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8294 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8295 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8296 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8297 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8298 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8300 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8301 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8302 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8304 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8305 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8306 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8307 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8309 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8310 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8312 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8313 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8315 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8317 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8318 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8319 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8320 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8321 a delimiting character.
8322 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8324 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8325 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8326 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8327 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8328 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8329 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8331 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8332 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8334 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8335 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8336 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8338 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8339 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8340 the array to read and write.
8342 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8343 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8346 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8348 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8351 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8352 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8353 Values for COMMAND are:
8355 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8356 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8357 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8358 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8359 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8360 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8361 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8362 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8364 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8366 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8367 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8368 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8369 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8370 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8371 corresponding return set will be the same.
8373 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8376 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8377 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8378 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8379 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8380 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8381 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8382 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8383 special file being created.
8385 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8386 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8388 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8389 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8390 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8391 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8392 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8393 and originating address.
8395 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8396 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8397 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8399 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8402 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8403 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8406 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8407 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8408 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8409 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8410 this function returns #f.
8412 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8413 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8414 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8417 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8418 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8419 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8422 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8423 a valid STATUS value.
8425 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8427 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8428 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8430 Component Accessor Setter
8431 ========================= ============ ============
8432 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8433 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8434 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8435 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8436 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8437 year tm:year set-tm:year
8438 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8439 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8440 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8441 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8442 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8444 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8445 describing the host system:
8448 ============================================== ================
8449 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8450 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8451 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8452 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8453 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8455 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8456 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8457 system's user database:
8460 ====================== =================
8461 user name passwd:name
8462 user password passwd:passwd
8465 real name passwd:gecos
8466 home directory passwd:dir
8467 shell program passwd:shell
8469 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8470 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8471 system's group database:
8474 ======================= ============
8475 group name group:name
8476 group password group:passwd
8478 group members group:mem
8480 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8481 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8485 ========================= ===============
8486 official name of host hostent:name
8487 alias list hostent:aliases
8488 host address type hostent:addrtype
8489 length of address hostent:length
8490 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8492 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8493 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8497 ========================= ===============
8498 official name of net netent:name
8499 alias list netent:aliases
8500 net number type netent:addrtype
8501 net number netent:net
8503 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8504 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8508 ========================= ===============
8509 official protocol name protoent:name
8510 alias list protoent:aliases
8511 protocol number protoent:proto
8513 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8514 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8518 ========================= ===============
8519 official service name servent:name
8520 alias list servent:aliases
8521 port number servent:port
8522 protocol to use servent:proto
8524 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8525 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8528 ======================================== ===============
8529 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8530 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8531 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8532 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8534 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8535 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8536 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8538 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8539 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8541 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8542 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8544 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8545 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8547 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8549 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8551 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8552 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8553 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8555 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8556 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8557 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8558 return the remaining characters as a string.
8560 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8561 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8562 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8564 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8566 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8568 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8571 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8574 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8575 and returns the array
8577 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8578 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8579 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8581 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8583 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8584 symbol's value from C code:
8586 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8587 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8588 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8589 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8591 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8592 without assigning them a value.
8594 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8595 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8596 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8598 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8599 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8600 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8602 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8603 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8605 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8606 doesn't actually care about that.
8608 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8609 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8610 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8612 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8613 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8614 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8615 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8616 which we have just created and initialized.
8618 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8619 should one occur. We call it like this:
8620 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8622 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8623 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8624 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8625 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8626 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8627 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8630 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8631 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8632 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8633 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8634 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8635 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8636 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8639 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8640 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8641 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8642 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8643 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8646 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8647 scm_internal_catch, except:
8649 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8650 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8651 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8652 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8655 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8656 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8657 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8659 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8660 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8661 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8662 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8665 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8666 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8667 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8669 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8670 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8671 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8672 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8673 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8675 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8676 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8677 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8679 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8680 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8681 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8683 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8684 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8686 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8687 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8688 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8691 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8692 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8693 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8694 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8695 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8696 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8697 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8700 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8701 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8703 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8704 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8705 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8706 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8707 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8710 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8711 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8713 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8714 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8717 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8718 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8720 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8723 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8724 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8725 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8726 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8727 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8728 given the following arguments:
8730 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8732 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8734 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8736 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8739 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8740 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8741 command-line arguments.
8743 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8744 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8745 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8746 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8747 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8748 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8751 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8754 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8755 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8757 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8758 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8760 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8761 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8762 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8763 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8765 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8766 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8768 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8769 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8770 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8771 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8773 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8774 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8776 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8777 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8779 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8781 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8782 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8783 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8786 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8787 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8789 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8790 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8795 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8798 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8800 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8801 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8802 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8803 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8805 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8807 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8809 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8810 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8811 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8812 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8813 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8814 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8815 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8816 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8817 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8818 for more information.
8820 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8821 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8823 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8824 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8825 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8826 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8827 following two lines at the top of the file:
8829 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8832 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8833 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8834 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8836 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8838 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8840 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8843 (display (car args))
8844 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8846 (loop (cdr args)))))
8849 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8850 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8851 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8852 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8853 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8854 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8858 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8861 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8864 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8866 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8867 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8868 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8869 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8870 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8873 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8874 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8875 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8876 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8877 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8880 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8883 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8884 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8885 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8888 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8889 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8890 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8892 to see a backtrace, and
8893 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8894 to see them by default.
8898 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8900 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8902 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8903 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8906 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8907 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8908 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8909 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8912 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8913 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8914 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8915 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8916 functions which inspired them.
8918 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8919 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8923 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8925 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8927 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8928 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8931 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8932 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8933 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8935 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8936 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8937 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8938 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8939 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8941 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8943 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8944 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8945 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8948 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8951 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8953 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8954 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8955 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8956 above should serve their purposes.
8958 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8959 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8960 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8961 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8963 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8966 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8967 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8968 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8969 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8971 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8972 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8973 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8974 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8976 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8977 for the `read' function.
8980 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8981 to that of `integer?'.
8983 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8984 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8986 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8987 it simply returns the object's property list.
8989 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8990 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8991 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8992 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8994 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8996 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8999 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9001 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9002 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9004 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9006 void (*main_func) (),
9009 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9010 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9011 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9012 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9013 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9015 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9016 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9017 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9018 know which arguments have been processed.
9020 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9021 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9022 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9023 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9024 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9026 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9027 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9028 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9029 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9030 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9031 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9032 people from making that mistake.
9034 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9035 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9037 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9039 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9043 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9046 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9047 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9048 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9049 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9052 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9053 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9054 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9055 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9058 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9059 have been added to the Guile library.
9061 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9062 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9063 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9066 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9067 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9068 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9070 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9071 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9072 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9073 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9074 argument from the list.
9077 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9080 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9081 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9083 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9084 to a Scheme port object.
9086 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9087 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9092 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9094 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9095 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9096 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9097 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9098 code as a special datatype.
9100 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9101 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9102 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9103 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9104 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9107 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9108 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9109 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9110 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9111 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9113 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9116 Copyright information:
9118 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9120 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9121 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9122 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9123 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9125 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9126 of this document, or of portions of it,
9127 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9128 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9133 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"