1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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9 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
11 * Changes to the distribution
12 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
13 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
14 * Changes to the C interface
17 Changes in 1.9.XXXXXXXX:
19 * New modules (see the manual for details)
21 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
23 * Changes to the distribution
24 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
25 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
27 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
28 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
30 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
31 This slightly improves program startup times.
33 * Changes to the C interface
35 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
36 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
39 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
41 * New modules (see the manual for details)
47 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
50 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
52 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
54 ** set-program-arguments
59 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
60 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
61 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
62 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
63 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
64 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
66 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
67 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
68 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
69 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
70 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
71 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
72 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
73 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
74 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
75 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
76 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
77 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
78 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
79 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
80 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
81 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
84 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
86 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
88 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
90 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
91 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
92 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
93 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
94 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
95 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
101 * New `(ice-9 i18n)' module (see the manual for details)
105 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
107 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
109 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
111 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
113 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
115 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
117 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
118 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
119 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
121 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
123 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
125 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
126 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
128 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
130 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
131 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
133 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
135 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
137 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
139 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
141 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
143 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
145 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
147 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
149 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
151 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
152 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
153 file was on a different device.
156 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
158 * Changes to the distribution
160 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
162 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
164 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
166 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
168 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
170 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
173 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
175 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
176 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
177 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
178 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
179 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
180 items like the versioned share directory name
181 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
183 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
184 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
185 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
186 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
187 with each micro release during a stable series.
189 ** Thread implementation has changed.
191 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
192 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
193 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
194 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
195 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
198 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
199 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
200 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
201 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
204 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
205 in which case "null" threads are used.
207 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
208 "Blocking", and others.
210 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
212 This is a milder form of deprecation.
214 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
215 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
216 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
217 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
218 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
220 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
221 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
223 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
225 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
226 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
228 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
231 This SRFI is always available.
233 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
235 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
236 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
237 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
238 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
241 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
243 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
244 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
245 parameters without currying.
247 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
249 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
250 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
252 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
253 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
256 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
257 with a renaming import, for example.
259 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
261 The official version is good enough now.
263 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
265 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
266 provided. Use 'make html'.
268 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
270 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
271 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
272 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
273 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
275 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
277 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
280 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
282 ** New command line option `-L'.
284 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
286 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
288 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
289 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
291 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
293 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
294 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
296 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
298 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
299 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
302 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
305 (define-module (demo)
309 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
312 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
314 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
316 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
317 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
318 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
320 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
322 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
323 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
325 ** New function hashx-remove!
327 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
329 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
330 barriers and dynamic states.
332 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
333 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
334 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
337 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
338 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
339 Barriers" in the manual.
341 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
342 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
344 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
346 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
347 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
348 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
351 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
353 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
354 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
356 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
357 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
358 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
360 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
361 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
363 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
364 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
365 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
367 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
368 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
369 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
372 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
373 substrings and read-only strings.
375 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
376 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
379 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
381 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
390 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
391 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
392 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
394 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
395 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
396 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
399 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
400 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
403 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
405 See the manual for details.
407 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
409 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
412 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
414 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
415 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
416 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
417 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
419 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
420 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
421 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
424 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
426 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
427 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
438 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
442 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
447 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
451 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
455 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
458 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
459 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
460 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
461 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
463 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
464 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
467 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
470 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
474 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
476 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
477 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
478 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
481 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
484 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
486 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
489 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
490 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
498 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
499 has been detected is to
501 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
502 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
503 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
506 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
509 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
511 to your .guile init file.
513 ** New define-module option: :replace
515 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
518 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
519 for the core binding `format'.
521 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
523 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
524 a prefix to all imported bindings.
527 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
529 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
532 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
534 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
535 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
536 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
538 ** New function: effective-version
540 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
541 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
542 to the distribution" above.
544 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
546 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
547 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
549 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
551 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
552 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
554 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
556 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
557 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
560 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
562 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
564 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
566 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
567 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
568 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
571 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
572 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
573 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
576 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
577 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
579 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
580 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
581 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
584 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
586 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
587 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
590 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
591 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
593 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
594 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
595 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
596 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
597 level for the current thread.
599 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
601 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
603 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
604 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
607 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
609 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
611 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
614 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
616 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
619 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
620 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
621 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
623 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
624 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
625 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
626 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
637 ERROR: Numerical overflow
639 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
642 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
644 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
645 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
646 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
657 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
659 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
660 them is also done exactly, of course:
665 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
668 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
669 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
671 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
673 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
674 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
675 equal to a floating point number. For example:
677 (inexact->exact 1.234)
678 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
680 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
682 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
685 ** New function 'rationalize'.
687 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
688 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
690 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
693 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
694 result when both its arguments are exact.
696 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
698 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
699 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
700 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
702 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
704 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
705 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
706 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
708 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
711 ** pretty-print has more options.
713 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
714 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
715 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
717 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
719 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
720 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
721 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
723 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
725 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
726 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
728 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
730 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
731 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
734 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
736 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
737 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
738 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
739 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
740 without the soft port blocking.
742 ** Deprecated: undefine
744 There is no replacement for undefine.
746 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
747 have been discouraged.
749 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
750 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
751 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
754 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
756 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
758 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
759 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
760 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
761 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
764 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
765 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
766 be removed in the next major Guile release.
768 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
770 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
771 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
772 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
773 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
774 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
775 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
777 * Changes to the C interface
779 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
780 take a 'delete' function argument.
782 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
783 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
785 This is an incompatible change.
787 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
789 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
790 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
791 --disable-deprecated.
793 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
795 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
796 Scheme values has been added.
798 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
799 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
804 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
805 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
807 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
809 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
810 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
813 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
815 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
816 scm_from_int for ints.
818 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
819 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
820 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
822 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
824 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
825 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
826 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
829 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
831 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
833 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
835 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
836 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
837 following alternatives.
839 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
840 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
841 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
842 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
844 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
845 do the validating for you.
847 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
848 have been discouraged.
850 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
851 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
854 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
856 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
857 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
860 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
862 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
865 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
868 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
870 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
871 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
873 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
874 scm_truncate_number should have.
876 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
877 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
879 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
882 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
883 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
884 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
886 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
887 easier to use from C.
889 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
890 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
892 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
893 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
894 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
897 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
898 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
899 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
900 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
903 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
904 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
905 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
906 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
907 and is thus quite efficient.
909 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
911 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
912 about the character encoding.
914 Replace according to the following table:
916 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
917 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
918 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
919 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
920 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
921 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
922 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
923 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
924 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
926 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
927 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
929 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
931 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
932 now also available to C code.
934 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
936 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
937 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
938 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
940 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
943 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
945 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
946 unceremoniously removed.
948 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
949 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
950 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
952 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
953 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
954 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
955 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
956 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
957 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
960 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
962 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
963 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
964 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
965 manual for more details.
967 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
968 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
970 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
971 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
972 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
974 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
976 Migrate according to the following table:
978 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
979 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
980 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
981 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
982 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
983 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
984 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
986 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
987 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
988 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
989 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
990 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
991 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
992 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
994 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
996 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
997 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
999 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1000 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1001 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1002 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1004 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1006 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1007 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1008 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1010 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1011 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1013 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1014 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1015 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1016 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1018 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1020 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1021 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1022 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1023 prevent a potential memory leak:
1030 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1032 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1033 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1035 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1036 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1043 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1044 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1048 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1050 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1052 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1053 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1054 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1056 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1057 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1059 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1061 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1063 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1064 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1065 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1067 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1068 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1070 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1071 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1072 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1073 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1076 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1078 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1079 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1080 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1082 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1084 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1085 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1087 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1089 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1090 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1092 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1094 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1095 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1096 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1098 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1100 You should not have used them.
1102 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1104 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1105 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1107 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1109 This macro is not intended for public use.
1111 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1113 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1115 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1117 Use scm_is_real instead.
1119 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1121 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1123 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1125 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1126 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1128 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1129 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1131 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1132 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1134 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1136 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1139 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1141 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1142 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1143 to the distribution" above.
1145 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1147 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1148 arguments are now passed directly:
1150 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1152 This is an incompatible change.
1154 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1156 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1157 function in the init section.
1159 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1161 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1163 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1164 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1165 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1166 stays roughly constant.
1168 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1169 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1170 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1171 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1172 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1175 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1176 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1177 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1178 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1180 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1181 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1182 objects for every type.
1185 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1187 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1189 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1191 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1192 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1193 initializes a new cell (see below).
1195 ** New functions for memory management
1197 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1198 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1199 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1200 cause aborts in long running programs.
1202 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1203 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1205 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1206 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1207 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1208 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1209 details and for upgrading instructions.
1211 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1212 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1213 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1215 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1217 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1218 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1219 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1220 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1221 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1223 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1224 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1225 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1227 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1228 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1230 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1232 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1233 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1234 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1235 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1236 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1238 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1240 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1243 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1245 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1247 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1249 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1250 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1252 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1254 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1255 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1257 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1258 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1260 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1262 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1264 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1265 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1266 blocking it is not well defined.
1268 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1270 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1271 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1272 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1273 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1274 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1275 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1276 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1277 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1278 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1279 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1280 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1281 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1282 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1283 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1284 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1285 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1286 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1287 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1288 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1289 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1290 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1291 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1292 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1293 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1294 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1295 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1296 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1297 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1298 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1299 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1300 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1302 * Changes to bundled modules
1306 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1307 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1308 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1309 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1310 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1313 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1315 * Changes to the distribution
1317 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1319 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1321 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1322 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1323 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1324 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1325 indicate major changes in Guile.
1327 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1328 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1329 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1330 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1332 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1333 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1334 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1335 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1336 micro version number.
1338 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1340 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1342 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1343 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1345 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1347 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1348 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1349 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1351 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1353 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1354 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1355 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1358 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1360 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1363 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1365 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1366 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1368 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1370 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1371 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1374 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1376 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1379 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1382 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1384 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1386 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1387 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1388 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1390 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1392 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1394 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1397 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1399 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1401 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1403 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1404 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1405 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1407 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1409 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1411 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1412 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1421 See README there for more info.
1423 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1424 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1427 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1429 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1431 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1433 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1434 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1435 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1437 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1439 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1440 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1441 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1443 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1444 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1446 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1449 (oop goops describe)
1451 (oop goops active-slot)
1452 (oop goops composite-slot)
1454 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1455 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1456 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1458 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1460 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1461 in the default environment:
1463 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1464 %read-line write-line
1466 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1467 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1469 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1471 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1474 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1475 can be used for similar functionality.
1477 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1479 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1480 it defines two procedures:
1482 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1484 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1485 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1486 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1489 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1491 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1492 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1493 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1494 write large strings.
1496 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1498 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1499 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1501 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1503 for complete documentation.
1505 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1507 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1508 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1509 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1510 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1512 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1513 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1517 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1518 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1519 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1522 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1525 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1526 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1528 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1529 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1532 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1535 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1537 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1539 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1541 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1543 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1544 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1545 Scheme programs easier.
1547 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1548 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1549 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1550 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1551 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1554 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1555 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1557 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1560 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1562 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1563 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1564 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1567 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1569 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1571 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1572 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1573 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1574 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1575 was also ASCII, for example.
1577 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1579 tag - no replacement.
1580 fseek - replaced by seek.
1581 list* - replaced by cons*.
1583 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1587 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1588 (define m (make-safe-module))
1589 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1590 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1591 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1593 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1595 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1596 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1597 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1599 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1601 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1602 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1603 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1604 from the issues related to the module system.
1606 *** New function: load-extension
1608 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1610 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1612 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1613 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1614 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1616 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1618 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1619 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1620 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1621 support dynamic linking).
1623 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1625 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1626 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1627 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1628 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1631 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1632 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1633 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1634 library and initialize it explicitly.
1636 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1637 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1639 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1641 (define-module (foo bar))
1643 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1645 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1647 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1648 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1650 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1651 (null-environment 5)
1652 (interaction-environment)
1658 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1660 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1661 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1662 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1663 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1665 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1666 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1667 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1668 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1669 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1670 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1671 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1672 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1673 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1674 one eval to the next.
1676 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1677 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1678 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1679 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1680 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1682 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1683 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1684 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1685 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1686 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1687 used in a lexical environment.
1689 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1690 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1691 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1692 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1693 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1694 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1696 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1698 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1699 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1700 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1701 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1702 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1704 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1705 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1706 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1708 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1709 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1711 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1712 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1713 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1715 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1716 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1718 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1719 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1720 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1721 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1724 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1725 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1726 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1727 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1729 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1730 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1731 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1733 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1734 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1735 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1736 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1737 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1739 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1741 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1742 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1743 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1745 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1746 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1747 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1749 See manual for more info.
1751 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1753 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1754 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1755 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1757 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1759 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1760 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1761 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1763 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1764 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1765 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1766 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1768 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1770 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1771 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1773 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1774 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1775 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1776 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1777 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1780 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1781 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1782 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1783 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1784 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1785 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1787 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1788 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1789 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1790 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1791 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1793 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1794 objects are usually permanent.
1796 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1797 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1799 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1801 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1802 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1805 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1809 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1814 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1816 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1817 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1818 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1819 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1821 ** New function `make-object-property'
1823 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1824 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1828 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1829 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1833 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1834 source properties eventually.
1836 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1838 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1839 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1840 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1842 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1843 will be removed in the next release.
1845 ** New define-module option: pure
1847 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1852 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1855 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1857 Export names NAME1 ...
1859 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1860 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1864 (define-module (foo)
1866 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1869 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1874 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1876 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1878 ** New function: port? X
1880 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1881 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1883 ** New function: file-port?
1885 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1887 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1889 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1890 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1891 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1892 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1893 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1895 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1897 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1898 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1899 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1900 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1901 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1904 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1906 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1907 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1908 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1909 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1912 ** New function: crypt password salt
1914 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1917 ** New function: chroot path
1919 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1921 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1923 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1926 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1928 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1930 ** New function: getpass prompt
1932 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1935 ** New function: flock file operation
1937 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1939 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1941 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1944 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1946 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1947 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1948 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1949 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1950 of the temporary file.
1952 ** New function: open-input-string string
1954 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1955 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1956 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1958 ** New function: open-output-string
1960 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1961 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1963 ** New function: get-output-string
1965 Return the contents of an output string port.
1967 ** New function: identity
1969 Return the argument.
1971 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1972 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1974 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1976 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1977 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1978 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1981 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1982 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1984 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1986 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1987 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1988 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1991 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1992 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1993 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1997 Use `identity' instead.
2003 ** Deprecated: return-it
2007 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2009 Use `string-length' instead.
2011 ** Deprecated: flags
2013 Use `logior' instead.
2015 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2017 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2018 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2019 port-for-each is more flexible.
2021 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2022 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2023 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2025 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2027 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2029 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2031 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2033 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2035 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2036 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2038 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2039 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2041 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2042 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2044 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2046 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2047 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2049 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2050 Use module system operations for all variables.
2052 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2054 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2057 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2059 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2060 The following bugs have been fixed:
2062 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2063 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2066 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2067 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2068 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2070 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2071 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2073 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2074 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2077 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2078 The expansion used to be like so:
2080 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2082 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2084 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2086 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2087 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2089 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2091 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2092 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2093 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2097 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2098 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2100 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2105 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2106 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2108 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2109 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2110 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2112 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2115 * Changes to the C interface
2117 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2119 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2120 with "_t". What a concept.
2122 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2124 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2126 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2130 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2131 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2133 *** C Functions removed
2135 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2136 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2137 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2138 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2139 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2140 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2141 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2143 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2145 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2147 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2149 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2151 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2152 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2154 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2156 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2159 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2161 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2163 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2165 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2166 Evaluation" in the manual.
2168 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2170 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2171 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2173 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2175 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2176 Constructors" in the manual.
2178 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2180 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2181 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2183 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2185 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2187 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2188 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2189 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2191 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2193 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2195 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2196 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2197 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2200 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2202 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2204 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2205 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2207 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2209 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2210 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2211 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2212 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2214 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2215 scm_primitive_property_ref
2216 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2217 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2219 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2220 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2222 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2224 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2225 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2226 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2227 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2229 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2231 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2232 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2233 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2234 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2235 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2236 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2237 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2239 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2240 scm_remember_upto_here
2242 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2244 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2246 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2247 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2249 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2251 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2253 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2255 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2257 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2259 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2260 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2261 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2262 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2263 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2264 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2266 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2268 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2270 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2271 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2272 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2274 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2276 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2277 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2278 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2280 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2282 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2283 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2286 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2289 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2290 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2293 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2295 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2297 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2299 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2301 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2303 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2305 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2306 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2307 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2308 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2309 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2310 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2311 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2312 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2313 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2314 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2315 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2316 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2317 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2318 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2319 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2321 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2322 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2323 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2324 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2325 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2326 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2327 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2328 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2329 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2330 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2331 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2332 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2333 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2334 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2335 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2336 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2337 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2338 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2339 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2340 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2341 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2342 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2343 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2344 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2345 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2346 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2347 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2348 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2349 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2351 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2353 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2355 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2356 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2358 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2360 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2362 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2364 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2366 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2368 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2370 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2372 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2374 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2377 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2378 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2380 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2382 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2384 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2386 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2388 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2390 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2392 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2394 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2397 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2399 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2401 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2403 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2404 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2406 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2407 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2409 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2411 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2412 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2413 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2415 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2417 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2419 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2420 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2422 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2423 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2424 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2425 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2427 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2428 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2429 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2431 Use the new ones from above instead.
2433 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2435 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2436 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2437 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2439 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2440 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2442 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2443 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2446 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2447 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2449 Use the new functions instead.
2451 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2454 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2456 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2458 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2461 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2463 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2466 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2468 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2471 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2472 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2473 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2475 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2477 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2478 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2480 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2481 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2482 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2483 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2486 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2488 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2489 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2490 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2491 inexact for an exact.
2493 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2494 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2495 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2498 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2499 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2500 accept an inexact argument.
2502 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2503 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2505 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2508 ** New number validation macros:
2509 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2513 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2515 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2516 scm_unprotect_object.
2518 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2520 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2522 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2525 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2527 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2531 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2533 * Changes to the distribution
2535 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2537 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2538 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2539 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2540 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2541 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2542 obtain these programs.
2543 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2544 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2546 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2547 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2548 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2549 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2550 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2552 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2553 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2554 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2555 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2559 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2562 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2563 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2564 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2565 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2567 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2569 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2571 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2572 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2574 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2575 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2577 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2578 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2580 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2581 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2582 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2583 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2585 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2587 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2591 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2592 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2594 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2596 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2597 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2599 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2600 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2601 number of objects of that kind.
2603 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2605 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2606 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2607 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2608 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2609 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2611 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2613 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2615 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2617 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2620 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2622 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2624 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2626 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2628 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2630 ** New command line option --debug
2632 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2634 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2636 ** New help facility
2638 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2639 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2640 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2641 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2642 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2643 (help) gives this text
2645 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2646 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2648 Examples: (help help)
2650 (help "output-string")
2652 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2654 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2656 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2657 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2660 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2661 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2662 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2665 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2666 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2667 use absolute filenames when possible.
2669 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2670 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2671 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2674 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2676 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2677 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2678 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2679 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2681 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2683 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2685 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2686 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2687 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2689 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2690 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2691 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2693 (read-enable 'positions)
2694 (debug-enable 'debug)
2696 ** Backtraces in scripts
2698 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2702 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2704 at the top of the script.
2706 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2707 The second enables backtraces.)
2709 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2711 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2712 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2713 substantially faster than before.
2715 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2716 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2718 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2719 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2721 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2723 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2724 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2725 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2727 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2728 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2729 when this hook is run in the future.
2731 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2732 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2734 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2736 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2737 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2740 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2741 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2742 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2744 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2745 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2747 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2748 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2750 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2751 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2752 in order not to need further allocation.)
2754 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2757 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2758 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2759 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2760 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2762 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2764 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2767 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2769 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2772 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2773 GC in percent of total heap size
2776 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2777 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2779 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2781 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2782 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2784 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2786 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2787 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2789 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2791 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2792 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2796 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2797 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2799 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2801 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2803 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2805 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2807 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2809 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2810 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2812 (simple-format port message . args)
2813 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2814 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2815 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2816 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2817 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2818 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2819 Does not add a trailing newline."
2821 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2823 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2824 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2826 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2827 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2829 ** Deprecated: list*
2831 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2833 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2835 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2836 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2838 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2839 is returned as result.
2841 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2843 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2845 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2847 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2848 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2851 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2853 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2855 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2856 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2858 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2860 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2862 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2864 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2866 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2868 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2870 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2872 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2873 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2874 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2876 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2879 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2881 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2882 the readability of argument checking.
2884 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2886 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2888 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2890 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2891 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2892 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2893 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2894 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2895 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2896 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2898 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2900 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2902 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2903 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2905 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2907 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2908 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2911 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2913 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2914 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2915 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2917 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2918 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2919 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2921 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2922 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2923 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2924 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2925 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2926 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2927 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2929 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2930 scm_end_input (object);
2931 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2932 ptob->flush (object);
2934 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2935 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2938 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2940 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2942 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2943 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2944 removed in a future version.
2946 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2948 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2949 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2950 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2951 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2953 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2954 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2956 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2959 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2961 in your configure.in.
2963 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2968 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2974 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2976 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2980 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2981 (define make-message string-append)
2983 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2985 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2989 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2994 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2998 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3000 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3001 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3003 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3005 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3006 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3007 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3008 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3009 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3010 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3012 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3013 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3014 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3016 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3017 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3018 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3021 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3022 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3023 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3024 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3025 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3027 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3028 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3029 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3030 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3031 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3032 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3033 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3035 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3037 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3038 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3039 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3041 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3042 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3043 KEY in the calling thread.
3045 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3046 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3047 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3048 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3049 associated with the key.
3051 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3053 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3054 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3056 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3058 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3059 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3060 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3062 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3064 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3065 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3067 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3069 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3071 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3072 returned is undefined.
3074 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3075 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3076 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3078 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3079 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3080 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3082 ** New C level GC hooks
3084 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3086 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3089 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3090 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3091 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3093 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3094 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3095 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3097 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3098 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3101 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3103 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3104 allocation parameters
3106 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3107 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3108 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3112 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3113 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3114 scm_default_max_segment_size
3116 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3118 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3119 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3121 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3123 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3124 object and count on the object being protected until
3125 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3127 The functions also have better time complexity.
3129 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3130 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3131 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3132 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3133 are no longer needed.
3135 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3137 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3138 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3139 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3140 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3142 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3144 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3146 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3148 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3149 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3150 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3151 until this issue has been settled.
3153 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3155 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3157 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3160 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3162 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3164 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3165 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3166 descriptors were checked.
3168 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3169 atomically written to a pipe.
3171 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3172 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3173 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3174 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3175 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3176 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3177 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3180 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3181 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3182 is changed without calling tzset.
3184 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3186 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3187 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3188 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3190 (define write-network-long
3191 (lambda (value port)
3192 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3193 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3194 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3196 (define read-network-long
3198 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3199 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3200 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3202 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3203 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3205 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3206 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3207 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3208 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3210 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3211 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3212 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3213 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3217 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3219 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3223 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3224 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3225 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3231 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3232 for a description of available commands.
3234 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3235 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3236 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3238 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3240 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3241 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3243 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3245 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3247 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3248 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3249 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3250 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3251 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3252 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3255 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3257 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3258 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3259 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3260 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3262 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3263 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3265 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3267 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3269 ** Readline support has changed again.
3271 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3272 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3273 to activate readline is now
3275 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3278 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3280 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3281 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3282 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3285 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3286 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3287 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3290 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3291 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3292 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3293 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3294 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3295 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3297 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3298 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3300 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3302 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3303 object it receives is the same string passed to
3304 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3305 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3306 string, not the suffix.
3308 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3309 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3310 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3312 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3314 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3315 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3316 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3317 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3320 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3322 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3324 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3325 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3326 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3327 appear from left to right.
3329 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3332 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3334 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3335 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3337 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3341 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3343 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3345 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3347 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3348 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3349 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3351 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3353 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3355 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3357 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3360 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3362 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3363 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3364 mentioning it here anyway.
3366 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3368 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3369 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3370 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3371 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3374 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3376 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3378 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3380 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3381 otherwise return #f.
3383 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3385 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3386 returned by `opendir'.
3388 ** New function: using-readline?
3390 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3392 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3394 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3395 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3397 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3399 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3401 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3402 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3403 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3405 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3407 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3408 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3410 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3412 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3413 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3414 documentation slots are not yet used.
3416 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3418 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3419 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3420 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3425 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3426 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3427 (string-append x y))
3429 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3430 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3432 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3433 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3434 be made in a clean way.]
3436 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3438 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3440 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3442 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3443 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3445 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3447 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3449 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3451 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3453 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3454 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3455 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3456 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3459 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3461 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3463 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3465 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3467 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3468 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3470 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3472 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3474 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3476 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3478 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3479 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3480 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3481 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3482 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3483 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3485 This should not make any difference for most users.
3487 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3489 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3490 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3492 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3494 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3495 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3496 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3497 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3498 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3500 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3502 It is now replaced by:
3504 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3506 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3507 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3509 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3511 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3512 This might change when we get the new module system.
3514 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3518 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3520 * Changes to mailing lists
3522 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3524 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3527 * Changes to the distribution
3529 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3531 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3532 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3533 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3534 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3535 you explicitly specify it.
3537 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3538 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3539 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3540 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3541 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3544 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3545 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3546 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3547 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3549 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3550 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3551 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3554 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3556 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3559 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3561 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3563 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3564 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3565 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3566 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3568 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3569 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3572 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3574 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3575 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3576 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3577 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3578 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3579 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3580 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3581 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3593 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3594 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3595 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3596 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3597 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3602 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3603 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3611 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3616 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3617 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3620 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3621 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3622 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3623 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3625 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3627 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3629 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3630 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3632 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3634 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3636 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3637 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3639 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3642 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3644 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3646 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3648 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3650 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3652 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3654 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3655 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3656 when the hook was created.
3658 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3659 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3660 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3661 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3662 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3663 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3664 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3665 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3666 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3668 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3669 the dlopen family of functions.
3671 ** New function `provided?'
3673 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3674 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3675 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3676 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3678 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3680 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3681 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3682 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3683 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3686 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3687 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3688 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3689 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3691 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3692 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3693 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3696 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3697 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3698 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3699 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3700 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3701 but with the flag set.
3703 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3705 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3706 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3708 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3709 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3710 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3711 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3712 available Scheme format implementations.
3714 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3715 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3716 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3717 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3718 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3719 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3720 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3721 output is to the current error port if available by the
3722 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3725 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3726 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3727 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3728 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3729 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3730 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3731 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3732 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3734 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3735 be executed at a time.
3738 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3740 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3741 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3742 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3744 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3745 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3746 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3747 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3748 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3749 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3750 general form of a directive is:
3752 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3754 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3756 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3758 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3759 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3760 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3763 Any (print as `display' does).
3767 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3771 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3775 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3781 print number sign always.
3784 print comma separated.
3786 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3792 print number sign always.
3795 print comma separated.
3797 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3803 print number sign always.
3806 print comma separated.
3808 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3814 print number sign always.
3817 print comma separated.
3819 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3824 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3828 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3831 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3834 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3837 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3842 prints `y' and `ies'.
3845 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3848 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3853 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3857 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3860 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3861 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3863 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3866 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3867 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3869 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3872 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3874 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3876 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3879 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3881 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3883 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3886 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3889 The sign appears before the padding.
3897 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3899 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3904 print N page separators.
3914 newline is ignored, white space left.
3917 newline is left, white space ignored.
3922 relative tabulation.
3928 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3930 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3933 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3935 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3938 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3941 converts by `string-upcase'.
3944 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3946 jumps N arguments forward.
3949 jumps 1 argument backward.
3952 jumps N arguments backward.
3955 jumps to the 0th argument.
3958 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3960 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3961 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3963 take argument from N.
3966 true test conditional.
3969 if-else-then conditional.
3975 default clause follows.
3978 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3980 at most N iterations.
3983 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3986 args from the rest of arguments.
3989 args from the rest args (lists).
4000 aborts if N <= M <= K
4002 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4005 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4008 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4014 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4016 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4018 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4019 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4020 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4021 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4022 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4023 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4027 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4031 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4037 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4040 Print a `#\space' character
4042 print N `#\space' characters.
4045 Print a `#\tab' character
4047 print N `#\tab' characters.
4050 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4051 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4052 must be a positive decimal number.
4055 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4056 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4057 be processed by `read'.
4060 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4061 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4062 be processed by `read'.
4065 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4068 prints format version.
4071 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4072 and format it accordingly.
4074 *** Configuration Variables
4076 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4077 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4078 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4079 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4082 format:symbol-case-conv
4083 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4084 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4085 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4086 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4087 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4089 format:iobj-case-conv
4090 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4091 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4094 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4097 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4103 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4104 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4105 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4106 `format' padding style.
4109 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4110 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4111 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4112 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4116 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4117 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4118 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4121 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4122 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4123 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4124 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4125 parameters or modifiers)).
4128 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4130 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4132 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4133 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4135 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4136 string-downcase! functions.
4138 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4139 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4141 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4144 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4147 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4148 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4150 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4152 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4153 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4155 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4156 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4157 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4158 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4159 would if STRING were input.
4161 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4163 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4164 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4165 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4166 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4169 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4171 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4172 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4175 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4177 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4178 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4180 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4181 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4183 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4184 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4185 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4186 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4188 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4189 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4191 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4192 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4193 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4195 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4196 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4198 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4199 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4200 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4201 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4202 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4204 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4205 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4206 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4207 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4208 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4209 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4211 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4212 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4213 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4216 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4217 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4218 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4219 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4220 the following grammar:
4221 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4222 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4223 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4224 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4225 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4226 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4227 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4228 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4229 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4230 last option in its combination)
4232 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4233 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4234 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4235 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4237 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4238 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4239 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4241 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4242 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4243 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4245 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4246 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4247 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4248 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4249 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4250 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4251 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4252 ordinary argument strings.
4254 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4255 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4256 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4257 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4259 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4260 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4262 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4263 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4264 - a required option is omitted
4265 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4266 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4267 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4268 - an option predicate fails
4273 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4276 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4277 (verbose (required? #f)
4280 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4281 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4282 (predicate ,string?))))
4284 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4285 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4287 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4288 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4289 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4290 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4293 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4295 It will be removed in a few releases.
4297 ** New syntax: lambda*
4298 ** New syntax: define*
4299 ** New syntax: define*-public
4300 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4301 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4302 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4304 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4305 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4306 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4307 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4308 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4310 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4311 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4312 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4314 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4316 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4317 and examples for `lambda*':
4320 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4322 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4323 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4324 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4325 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4326 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4327 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4328 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4329 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4331 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4333 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4334 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4335 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4336 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4338 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4339 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4340 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4341 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4342 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4343 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4344 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4345 and until the procedure is called.
4347 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4349 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4350 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4351 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4352 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4353 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4354 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4355 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4356 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4357 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4358 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4360 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4361 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4362 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4363 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4366 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4368 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4369 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4370 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4371 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4373 ** New syntax: and-let*
4374 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4376 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4377 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4378 (<variable> <expression>)
4381 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4382 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4383 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4386 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4387 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4388 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4389 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4390 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4391 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4392 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4394 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4395 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4396 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4397 shadow earlier bindings.
4399 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4401 ** New sorting functions
4403 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4404 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4405 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4406 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4408 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4409 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4412 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4413 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4414 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4416 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4417 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4418 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4419 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4421 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4422 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4423 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4424 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4425 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4428 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4429 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4430 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4431 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4432 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4433 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4435 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4436 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4437 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4439 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4440 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4441 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4444 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4445 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4446 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4448 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4449 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4451 ** New built-in random number support
4453 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4454 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4455 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4456 returned have a uniform distribution.
4458 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4459 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4460 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4461 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4462 effect of the `random' operation.
4464 *** New variable: *random-state*
4465 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4466 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4467 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4468 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4469 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4472 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4473 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4474 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4475 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4476 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4478 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4479 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4480 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4481 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4482 initialized using SEED.
4484 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4485 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4486 range between 0 and 1.
4488 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4489 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4490 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4491 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4492 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4493 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4494 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4496 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4497 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4498 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4499 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4500 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4501 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4503 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4504 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4505 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4506 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4508 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4509 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4510 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4511 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4513 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4514 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4515 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4517 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4519 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4522 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4523 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4526 ** New function: make-guardian
4527 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4528 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4529 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4530 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4531 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4533 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4534 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4535 one object if at all.
4537 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4538 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4539 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4541 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4542 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4543 read again in last-in first-out order.
4545 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4546 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4548 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4550 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4551 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4552 file position is used.
4554 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4555 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4556 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4558 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4559 redefined using seek.
4561 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4562 size is not supplied.
4564 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4565 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4567 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4568 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4570 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4572 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4573 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4574 and returns the contents as a single string.
4576 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4577 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4578 lists in serial order.
4580 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4581 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4582 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4584 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4585 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4586 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4587 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4589 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4590 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4591 and #f if an error occured.
4593 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4595 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4596 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4597 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4598 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4600 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4602 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4605 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4607 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4610 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4614 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4615 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4617 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4618 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4622 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4624 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4626 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4627 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4629 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4631 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4632 might change when we get the new module system.
4634 ** The smob interface
4636 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4637 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4639 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4641 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4645 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4646 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4647 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4648 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4649 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4650 will be freed by the default free function.
4652 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4653 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4654 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4655 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4657 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4658 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4659 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4660 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4662 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4664 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4665 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4669 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4670 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4671 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4673 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4674 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4675 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4676 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4678 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4679 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4680 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4682 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4683 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4684 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4685 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4687 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4688 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4689 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4691 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4695 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4697 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4698 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4699 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4701 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4702 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4703 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4705 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4706 a string port's buffer.
4708 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4709 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4710 function pointers which together define the current random number
4711 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4712 number library functions.
4714 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4717 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4718 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4721 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4722 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4724 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4725 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4727 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4728 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4731 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4732 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4733 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4734 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4736 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4737 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4738 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4739 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4740 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4741 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4742 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4744 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4745 by libguile and the application.
4747 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4748 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4749 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4750 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4752 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4753 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4755 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4756 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4757 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4759 ** Random number library functions
4760 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4761 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4762 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4764 The default random state is stored in:
4766 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4767 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4768 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4773 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4775 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4776 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4777 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4778 isn't a random state.
4780 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4781 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4783 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4784 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4785 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4786 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4788 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4789 Return 32 random bits.
4791 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4792 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4794 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4795 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4797 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4798 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4800 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4801 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4803 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4804 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4805 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4809 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4811 * Changes to the distribution
4813 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4814 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4815 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4818 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4819 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4820 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4822 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4823 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4824 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4825 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4828 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4829 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4830 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4832 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4834 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4836 *** Function: batch-mode?
4838 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4841 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4843 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4844 case has not been implemented.
4846 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4847 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4848 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4851 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4852 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4854 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4856 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4858 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4860 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4861 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4864 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4865 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4866 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4867 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4870 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4872 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4873 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4874 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4875 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4876 find those libraries.
4878 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4879 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4882 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4884 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4885 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4886 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4887 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4889 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4890 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4891 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4895 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4897 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4898 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4899 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4902 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4903 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4904 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4905 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4907 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4908 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4911 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4912 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4913 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4914 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4915 compiler where to find the libraries.
4917 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4918 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4919 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4921 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4922 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4923 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4924 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4925 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4929 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4931 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4932 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4933 internationalization support.
4935 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4936 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4937 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4938 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4939 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4941 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4942 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4943 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4944 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4945 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4947 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4948 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4949 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4950 any GNU mirror site.
4952 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4954 ** New function: add-history STRING
4955 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4956 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4957 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4959 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4961 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4962 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4963 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4966 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4967 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4968 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4970 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4972 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4975 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4976 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4979 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4980 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4981 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4982 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4983 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4984 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4986 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4987 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4988 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4989 of the form mentioned above.
4991 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4992 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4993 returned in the special `rest' list.
4995 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4996 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4998 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5000 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5002 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5004 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5005 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5006 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5007 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5008 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5009 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5010 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5011 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5014 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5016 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5018 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5019 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5022 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5023 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5024 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5028 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5029 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5030 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5031 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5032 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5033 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5034 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5035 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5038 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5040 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5041 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5042 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5044 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5046 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5047 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5049 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5050 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5051 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5053 Why do we have this function?
5054 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5055 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5056 primitive, and display it differently, and
5057 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5058 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5061 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5062 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5065 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5066 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5067 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5068 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5070 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5071 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5074 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5075 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5077 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5079 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5080 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5081 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5082 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5083 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5084 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5085 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5088 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5090 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5091 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5093 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5094 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5095 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5096 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5097 properly continue the print chain.
5099 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5100 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5101 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5102 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5103 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5104 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5105 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5106 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5108 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5109 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5110 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5111 safest to not check for these pairs.
5113 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5114 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5115 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5116 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5118 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5120 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5121 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5123 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5125 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5127 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5128 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5129 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5131 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5132 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5133 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5135 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5136 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5137 the following functions and macros:
5139 Function: make-fluid
5141 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5142 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5143 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5144 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5145 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5147 Function: fluid? OBJ
5149 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5151 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5152 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5154 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5155 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5157 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5159 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5160 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5161 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5162 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5163 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5164 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5165 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5167 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5169 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5170 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5171 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5172 should evaluate to a fluid.
5174 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5176 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5177 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5178 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5179 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5180 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5182 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5185 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5187 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5189 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5191 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5194 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5195 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5196 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5197 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5198 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5201 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5202 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5203 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5205 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5206 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5207 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5209 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5210 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5211 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5212 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5214 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5215 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5216 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5217 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5219 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5220 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5221 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5222 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5224 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5225 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5226 their revealed counts set to zero.
5228 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5229 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5231 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5232 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5234 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5235 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5237 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5238 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5239 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5241 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5242 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5243 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5245 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5246 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5247 default environment inherited by child processes.
5249 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5250 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5251 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5253 The return value is unspecified.
5255 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5256 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5257 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5258 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5259 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5261 The return value is unspecified.
5263 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5264 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5272 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5273 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5276 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5279 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5280 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5281 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5283 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5284 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5285 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5286 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5289 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5290 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5292 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5293 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5294 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5295 the `environ' procedure.
5297 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5298 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5301 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5302 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5304 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5305 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5306 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5307 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5309 *** procedure: times
5310 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5311 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5312 return a selected component:
5315 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5319 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5322 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5326 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5327 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5331 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5332 terminated child processes.
5334 ** Removed: list-length
5335 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5336 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5338 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5340 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5342 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5344 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5345 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5346 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5347 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5349 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5350 extra complexity it introduces.
5352 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5353 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5355 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5356 variable to any non-empty value.
5358 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5359 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5361 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5363 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5364 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5366 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5368 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5369 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5371 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5373 ** vector handling routines
5375 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5376 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5377 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5378 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5379 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5381 ** pair and list routines
5383 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5386 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5388 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5391 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5393 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5395 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5396 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5397 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5398 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5399 site-specific initialization code.
5401 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5402 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5403 initialization processes.
5405 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5406 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5407 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5408 initialized properly.
5410 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5411 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5412 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5414 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5415 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5416 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5417 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5418 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5420 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5422 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5423 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5424 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5425 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5426 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5428 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5429 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5430 which look like this:
5433 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5435 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5436 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5439 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5440 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5443 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5445 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5446 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5447 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5449 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5450 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5451 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5452 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5453 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5455 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5456 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5458 int (*free) (SCM port);
5459 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5460 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5461 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5465 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5466 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5467 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5469 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5472 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5473 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5474 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5476 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5477 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5478 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5481 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5485 struct timeval *timeout);
5487 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5488 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5489 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5490 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5491 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5492 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5494 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5495 scm_catch_body_t body,
5497 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5500 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5501 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5502 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5503 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5504 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5505 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5507 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5509 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5512 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5513 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5514 spawning threads from application C code.
5516 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5517 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5518 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5519 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5520 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5521 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5523 ** Removed functions:
5525 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5526 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5528 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5530 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5531 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5533 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5535 ** mbstrings are now removed
5537 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5538 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5540 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5542 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5543 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5544 their new names and arguments:
5546 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5547 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5548 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5549 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5552 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5554 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5556 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5559 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5561 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5562 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5563 pass a #f arg to catch.
5565 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5567 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5568 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5571 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5572 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5573 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5574 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5575 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5576 reclaim its storage.
5578 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5579 worrying that some other function you call will call
5580 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5581 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5582 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5583 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5586 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5588 * Changes to the distribution
5590 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5591 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5594 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5595 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5597 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5598 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5600 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5602 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5603 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5604 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5606 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5608 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5609 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5610 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5611 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5612 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5613 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5615 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5616 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5617 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5620 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5621 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5622 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5623 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5625 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5626 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5627 libraries to your link command:
5629 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5630 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5631 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5632 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5634 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5635 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5636 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5638 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5640 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5641 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5644 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5646 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5647 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5648 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5649 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5650 searched is system dependent.
5652 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5654 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5656 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5658 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5659 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5661 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5663 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5664 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5665 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5666 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5667 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5670 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5672 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5673 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5674 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5675 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5676 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5678 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5680 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5681 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5683 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5685 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5686 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5687 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5690 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5692 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5693 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5694 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5695 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5697 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5698 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5700 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5702 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5703 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5705 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5707 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5708 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5716 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5718 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5719 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5720 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5721 a more informative way.
5723 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5724 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5725 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5726 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5727 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5728 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5730 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5731 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5734 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5735 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5736 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5739 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5740 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5741 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5742 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5743 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5744 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5746 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5747 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5748 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5749 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5752 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5753 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5754 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5755 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5756 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5757 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5759 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5760 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5761 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5762 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5763 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5765 *** regexp functions
5767 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5768 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5769 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5771 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5772 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5773 with SCSH regular expressions.
5775 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5776 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5777 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5778 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5780 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5781 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5782 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5783 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5785 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5786 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5787 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5788 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5789 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5790 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5792 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5793 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5794 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5795 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5796 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5798 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5800 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5801 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5802 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5803 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5805 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5806 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5807 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5809 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5810 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5812 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5815 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5816 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5817 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5819 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5820 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5821 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5823 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5824 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5825 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5826 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5827 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5830 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5832 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5833 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5834 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5835 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5836 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5837 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5839 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5840 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5841 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5843 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5844 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5847 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5848 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5850 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5851 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5852 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5853 may be one of the following arguments:
5855 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5857 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5859 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5860 the regexp match is written.
5862 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5863 following the regexp match is written.
5865 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5866 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5869 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5870 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5871 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5872 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5873 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5874 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5876 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5879 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5880 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5881 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5882 written out to PORT.
5884 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5885 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5886 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5887 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5888 will return after processing a single match.
5890 *** Match Structures
5892 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5893 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5894 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5895 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5896 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5897 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5900 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5901 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5902 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5903 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5904 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5906 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5907 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5908 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5910 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5911 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5912 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5913 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5914 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5916 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5917 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5919 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5920 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5922 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5923 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5925 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5926 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5928 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5929 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5930 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5931 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5933 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5934 Return the original TARGET string.
5936 *** Backslash Escapes
5938 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5939 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5940 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5941 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5942 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5943 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5945 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5946 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5947 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5948 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5949 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5950 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5951 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5952 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5954 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5955 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5956 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5957 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5958 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5959 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5960 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5962 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5963 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5964 return the resulting string.
5966 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5967 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5968 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5969 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5970 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5971 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5972 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5973 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5974 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5975 translated to the single character `*'.
5977 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5978 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5979 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5980 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5981 consecutive backslashes:
5983 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5985 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5986 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5987 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5989 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5990 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5991 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5992 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5993 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5994 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5996 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5998 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5999 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6000 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6001 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6002 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6003 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6004 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6005 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6006 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6007 cumbersome escape syntax.
6009 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6011 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6013 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6015 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6018 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6020 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6022 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6025 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6026 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6027 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6028 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6029 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6031 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6032 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6033 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6034 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6035 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6036 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6037 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6040 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6041 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6042 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6045 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6046 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6048 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6049 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6050 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6051 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6052 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6053 installed, you can say:
6055 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6058 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6060 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6061 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6062 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6063 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6064 new dynamic roots and threads.
6067 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6069 * Changes to the distribution.
6071 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6073 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6074 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6075 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6076 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6077 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6078 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6079 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6080 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6082 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6085 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6086 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6091 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6093 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6094 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6096 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6097 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6098 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6099 the (command-line) function.
6100 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6101 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6102 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6104 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6105 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6106 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6107 command line arguments
6108 -ds do -s script at this point
6109 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6110 -h, --help display this help and exit
6111 -v, --version display version information and exit
6112 \ read arguments from following script lines
6114 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6115 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6117 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6120 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6124 (main (command-line))
6126 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6128 ekko a speckled gecko
6130 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6131 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6132 following list of command-line arguments:
6134 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6136 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6137 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6138 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6139 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6140 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6142 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6144 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6146 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6147 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6150 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6151 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6152 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6153 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6155 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6156 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6157 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6158 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6160 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6164 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6168 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6170 ekko a speckled gecko
6172 Unix expands this into
6174 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6176 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6177 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6179 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6181 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6182 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6184 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6185 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6186 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6187 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6188 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6189 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6190 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6191 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6192 it only terminates the argument list.)
6193 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6194 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6195 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6196 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6197 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6198 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6199 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6200 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6202 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6204 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6205 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6206 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6207 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6208 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6210 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6211 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6212 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6214 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6216 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6217 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6218 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6219 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6222 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6223 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6224 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6226 * Changes to Scheme functions
6228 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6229 and disabled by default.
6231 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6232 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6233 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6234 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6236 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6238 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6240 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6241 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6243 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6244 (read-set! keywords #f)
6246 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6247 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6248 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6251 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6252 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6253 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6256 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6257 support for Scheme functions.
6259 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6260 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6261 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6262 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6265 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6266 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6267 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6270 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6271 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6272 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6275 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6276 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6277 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6278 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6279 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6280 display the result as a prompt.
6281 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6283 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6284 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6285 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6288 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6289 procedure of zero arguments.
6291 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6292 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6293 argument is bound in the current module.
6295 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6296 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6297 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6298 public bindings into the current module.
6300 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6301 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6303 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6304 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6306 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6307 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6309 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6310 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6312 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6313 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6315 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6316 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6317 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6318 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6319 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6321 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6322 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6323 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6324 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6326 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6329 ** Changes to I/O functions
6331 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6332 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6333 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6335 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6336 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6337 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6339 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6340 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6342 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6343 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6344 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6345 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6347 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6349 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6350 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6352 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6353 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6354 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6355 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6356 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6359 'trim omit delimiter from result
6360 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6361 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6362 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6364 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6366 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6367 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6369 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6370 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6371 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6372 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6373 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6375 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6376 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6377 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6379 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6380 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6381 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6382 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6384 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6385 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6387 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6388 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6390 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6392 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6393 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6394 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6395 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6396 a delimiting character.
6397 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6399 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6400 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6401 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6402 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6403 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6404 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6406 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6407 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6409 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6410 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6411 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6413 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6414 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6415 the array to read and write.
6417 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6418 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6421 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6423 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6426 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6427 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6428 Values for COMMAND are:
6430 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6431 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6432 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6433 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6434 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6435 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6436 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6437 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6439 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6441 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6442 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6443 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6444 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6445 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6446 corresponding return set will be the same.
6448 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6451 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6452 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6453 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6454 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6455 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6456 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6457 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6458 special file being created.
6460 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6461 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6463 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6464 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6465 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6466 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6467 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6468 and originating address.
6470 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6471 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6472 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6474 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6477 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6478 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6481 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6482 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6483 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6484 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6485 this function returns #f.
6487 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6488 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6489 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6492 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6493 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6494 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6497 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6498 a valid STATUS value.
6500 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6502 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6503 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6505 Component Accessor Setter
6506 ========================= ============ ============
6507 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6508 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6509 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6510 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6511 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6512 year tm:year set-tm:year
6513 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6514 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6515 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6516 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6517 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6519 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6520 describing the host system:
6523 ============================================== ================
6524 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6525 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6526 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6527 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6528 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6530 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6531 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6532 system's user database:
6535 ====================== =================
6536 user name passwd:name
6537 user password passwd:passwd
6540 real name passwd:gecos
6541 home directory passwd:dir
6542 shell program passwd:shell
6544 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6545 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6546 system's group database:
6549 ======================= ============
6550 group name group:name
6551 group password group:passwd
6553 group members group:mem
6555 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6556 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6560 ========================= ===============
6561 official name of host hostent:name
6562 alias list hostent:aliases
6563 host address type hostent:addrtype
6564 length of address hostent:length
6565 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6567 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6568 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6572 ========================= ===============
6573 official name of net netent:name
6574 alias list netent:aliases
6575 net number type netent:addrtype
6576 net number netent:net
6578 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6579 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6583 ========================= ===============
6584 official protocol name protoent:name
6585 alias list protoent:aliases
6586 protocol number protoent:proto
6588 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6589 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6593 ========================= ===============
6594 official service name servent:name
6595 alias list servent:aliases
6596 port number servent:port
6597 protocol to use servent:proto
6599 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6600 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6603 ======================================== ===============
6604 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6605 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6606 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6607 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6609 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6610 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6611 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6613 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6614 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6616 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6617 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6619 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6620 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6622 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6624 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6626 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6627 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6628 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6630 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6631 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6632 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6633 return the remaining characters as a string.
6635 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6636 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6637 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6639 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6641 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6643 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6646 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6649 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6650 and returns the array
6652 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6653 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6654 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6656 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6658 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6659 symbol's value from C code:
6661 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6662 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6663 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6664 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6666 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6667 without assigning them a value.
6669 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6670 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6671 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6673 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6674 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6675 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6677 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6678 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6680 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6681 doesn't actually care about that.
6683 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6684 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6685 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6687 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6688 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6689 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6690 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6691 which we have just created and initialized.
6693 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6694 should one occur. We call it like this:
6695 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6697 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6698 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6699 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6700 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6701 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6702 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6705 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6706 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6707 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6708 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6709 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6710 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6711 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6714 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6715 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6716 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6717 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6718 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6721 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6722 scm_internal_catch, except:
6724 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6725 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6726 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6727 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6730 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6731 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6732 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6734 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6735 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6736 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6737 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6740 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6741 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6742 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6744 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6745 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6746 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6747 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6748 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6750 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6751 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6752 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6754 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6755 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6756 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6758 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6759 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6761 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6762 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6763 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6766 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6767 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6768 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6769 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6770 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6771 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6772 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6775 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6776 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6778 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6779 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6780 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6781 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6782 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6785 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6786 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6788 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6789 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6792 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6793 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6795 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6798 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6799 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6800 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6801 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6802 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6803 given the following arguments:
6805 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6807 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6809 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6811 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6814 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6815 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6816 command-line arguments.
6818 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6819 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6820 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6821 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6822 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6823 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6826 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6829 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6830 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6832 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6833 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6835 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6836 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6837 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6838 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6840 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6841 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6843 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6844 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6845 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6846 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6848 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6849 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6851 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6852 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6854 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6856 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6857 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6858 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6861 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6862 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6864 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6865 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6870 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6873 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6875 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6876 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6877 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6878 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6880 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6882 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6884 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6885 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6886 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6887 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6888 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6889 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6890 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6891 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6892 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6893 for more information.
6895 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6896 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6898 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6899 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6900 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6901 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6902 following two lines at the top of the file:
6904 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6907 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6908 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6909 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6911 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6913 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6915 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6918 (display (car args))
6919 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6921 (loop (cdr args)))))
6924 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6925 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6926 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6927 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6928 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6929 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6933 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6936 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6939 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6941 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6942 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6943 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6944 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6945 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6948 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6949 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6950 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6951 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6952 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6955 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6958 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6959 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6960 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6963 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6964 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6965 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6967 to see a backtrace, and
6968 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6969 to see them by default.
6973 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6975 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6977 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6978 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6981 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6982 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6983 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6984 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6987 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6988 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6989 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6990 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6991 functions which inspired them.
6993 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6994 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6998 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7000 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7002 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7003 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7006 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7007 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7008 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7010 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7011 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7012 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7013 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7014 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7016 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7018 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7019 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7020 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7023 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7026 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7028 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7029 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7030 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7031 above should serve their purposes.
7033 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7034 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7035 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7036 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7038 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7041 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7042 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7043 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7044 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7046 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7047 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7048 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7049 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7051 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7052 for the `read' function.
7055 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7056 to that of `integer?'.
7058 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7059 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7061 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7062 it simply returns the object's property list.
7064 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7065 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7066 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7067 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7069 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7071 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7074 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7076 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7077 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7079 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7081 void (*main_func) (),
7084 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7085 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7086 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7087 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7088 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7090 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7091 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7092 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7093 know which arguments have been processed.
7095 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7096 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7097 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7098 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7099 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7101 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7102 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7103 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7104 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7105 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7106 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7107 people from making that mistake.
7109 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7110 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7112 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7114 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7118 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7121 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7122 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7123 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7124 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7127 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7128 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7129 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7130 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7133 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7134 have been added to the Guile library.
7136 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7137 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7138 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7141 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7142 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7143 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7145 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7146 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7147 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7148 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7149 argument from the list.
7152 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7155 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7156 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7158 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7159 to a Scheme port object.
7161 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7162 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7167 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7169 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7170 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7171 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7172 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7173 code as a special datatype.
7175 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7176 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7177 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7178 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7179 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7182 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7183 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7184 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7185 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7186 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7188 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7191 Copyright information:
7193 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7195 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7196 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7197 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7198 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7200 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7201 of this document, or of portions of it,
7202 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7203 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7208 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"