1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since the stable branch:
9 * Changes to the standalone interpreter
11 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
13 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
14 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
16 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
18 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
19 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
21 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
23 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
25 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
26 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
27 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
29 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
32 ** pretty-print has more options.
34 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
35 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
36 maximum output width. See its online documentation.
38 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
40 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
41 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
42 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
44 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
46 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
47 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
49 ** Removed: substring-move-left!, substring-move-right!
51 Use `substring-move!' instead.
53 * Changes to the C interface
55 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
57 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
58 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
59 initializes a new cell (see below).
61 ** New functions for memory management
63 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
64 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
65 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
66 cause aborts in long running programs.
68 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
69 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
71 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_strdup,
72 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_realloc, scm_gc_free,
73 scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
74 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
75 details and for upgrading instructions.
77 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
78 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
79 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
81 ** New function: scm_str2string
83 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
86 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
88 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
89 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
90 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
91 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
92 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
94 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
95 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
96 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
98 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
99 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
101 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
103 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
104 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
105 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
106 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
108 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
110 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
113 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
115 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
117 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify,
118 s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
119 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated,
120 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND,
121 SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
122 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_substring_move_left_x, scm_substring_move_right_x,
123 long_long, ulong_long, scm_sizet, SCM_WNA, SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC,
124 SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL,
125 SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL,
126 SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, moddata, registered_mods,
127 scm_register_module_xxx, scm_registered_modules,
128 scm_clear_registered_modules, scm_wta, *top-level-lookup-closure*,
129 scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
130 scm_eval2, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR, SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR,
131 SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_GC8MARKP, SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK,
132 SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, scm_remember, scm_protect_object,
133 scm_unprotect_object, root_module_lookup_closure, scm_sym_app,
134 scm_sym_modules, module_prefix, make_modules_in_var,
135 beautify_user_module_x_var, try_module_autoload_var, scm_module_full_name,
136 scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module, scm_ensure_user_module,
137 scm_load_scheme_module, scm_port, scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_port_rw_active,
138 scm_close_all_ports_except, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_i_rstate,
139 SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_STRING_UCHARS, SCM_STRING_CHARS,
140 scm_read_only_string_p, scm_makstr, scm_makfromstr,
141 scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP,
142 SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP, scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
143 sym_huh, scm_variable_set_name_hint, scm_builtin_variable, SCM_VARVCELL,
144 SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_internal_with_fluids,
145 scm_make_gsubr, scm_make_gsubr_with_generic, scm_create_hook, list*,
146 SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4, SCM_LIST5,
147 SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9, scm_listify, scm_sloppy_memq,
148 scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member, scm_end_of_file_key,
149 scm_read_and_eval_x, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
150 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
151 scm_subr_entry, SCM_SUBR_DOC, scm_make_subr_opt, scm_make_subr,
152 scm_make_subr_with_generic, setjmp_type, setjmp_type,
153 scm_call_catching_errors, scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe,
154 scm_strprint_obj, scm_read_0str, scm_eval_0str, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
155 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
156 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
157 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_strhash,
158 scm_sym2vcell, scm_sym2ovcell_soft, scm_sym2ovcell,
159 scm_intern_obarray_soft, scm_intern_obarray, scm_intern, scm_intern0,
160 scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0, scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup,
161 scm_symbol_value0, scm_string_to_obarray_symbol, scm_intern_symbol,
162 scm_unintern_symbol, scm_symbol_binding, scm_symbol_interned_p,
163 scm_symbol_bound_p, scm_symbol_set_x, scm_gentemp,
164 scm_init_symbols_deprecated, s_vector_set_length_x, scm_vector_set_length_x,
165 scm_contregs, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_OPDIRP,
166 scm_fport, scm_option, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL,
167 SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT, scm_srcprops, scm_srcprops_chunk,
168 scm_info_frame, scm_stack, scm_array, scm_array_dim, SCM_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS,
169 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA,
170 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY,
171 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
172 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
173 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int,
174 scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int,
175 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell,
176 SCM_ECONSP, SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
177 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable
179 Changes since Guile 1.4:
181 * Changes to the distribution
183 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
185 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
187 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
188 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
189 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
190 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
191 indicate major changes in Guile.
193 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
194 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
195 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
196 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
198 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
199 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
200 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
201 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
202 micro version number.
204 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
206 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
208 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
209 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
211 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
213 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
214 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
215 See INSTALL and README for more information.
217 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
219 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
220 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
221 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
224 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
226 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
229 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
231 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
232 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
234 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
236 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
237 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
240 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
242 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
245 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
248 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
250 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
252 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
253 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
254 open-output-string, get-output-string.
256 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
258 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
260 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
263 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
265 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
267 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
269 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
270 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
271 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
273 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
275 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
277 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
278 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
287 See README there for more info.
289 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
290 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
293 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
295 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
297 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
299 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
300 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
301 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
303 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
305 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
306 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
307 to be named `and-let*', of course.
309 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
310 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
312 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
317 (oop goops active-slot)
318 (oop goops composite-slot)
320 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
321 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
322 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
324 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
326 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
327 in the default environment:
329 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
330 %read-line write-line
332 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
333 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
335 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
337 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
340 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
341 can be used for similar functionality.
343 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
345 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
346 it defines two procedures:
348 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
350 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
351 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
352 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
355 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
357 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
358 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
359 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
362 ** New module (ice-9 match)
364 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
365 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
367 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
369 for complete documentation.
371 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
373 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
374 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
375 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
376 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
378 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
379 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
383 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
384 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
385 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
388 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
391 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
392 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
394 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
395 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
398 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
401 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
403 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
405 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
407 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
409 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
410 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
411 Scheme programs easier.
413 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
414 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
415 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
416 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
417 `cond-expand' when using this option.
420 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
421 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
423 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
426 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
428 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
429 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
430 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
433 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
435 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
437 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
438 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
439 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
440 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
441 was also ASCII, for example.
443 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
445 tag - no replacement.
446 fseek - replaced by seek.
447 list* - replaced by cons*.
449 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
453 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
454 (define m (make-safe-module))
455 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
456 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
457 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
459 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
461 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
462 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
463 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
465 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
467 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
468 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
469 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
470 from the issues related to the module system.
472 *** New function: load-extension
474 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
476 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
478 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
479 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
480 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
482 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
484 This function registers a initialization function for use by
485 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
486 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
487 support dynamic linking).
489 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
491 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
492 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
493 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
494 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
497 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
498 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
499 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
500 library and initialize it explicitely.
502 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
503 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
505 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
507 (define-module (foo bar))
509 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
511 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
513 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
514 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
516 (scheme-report-environment 5)
518 (interaction-environment)
524 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
526 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
527 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
528 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
529 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
531 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
532 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
533 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
534 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
535 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
536 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
537 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
538 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
539 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
540 one eval to the next.
542 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
543 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
544 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
545 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
546 subforms are at the top-level as well.
548 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
549 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
550 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
551 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
552 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
553 used in a lexical environment.
555 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
556 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
557 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
558 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
559 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
560 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
562 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
564 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
565 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
566 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
567 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
568 new facilities: selection and renaming.
570 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
571 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
572 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
574 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
575 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
577 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
578 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
579 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
582 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
584 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
585 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
586 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
587 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
590 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
591 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
592 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
593 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
596 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
597 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
599 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
600 ;; and all four by upcasing.
601 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
602 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
603 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
605 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
608 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
609 :renamer upcase-symbol))
611 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
612 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
613 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
615 See manual for more info.
617 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
619 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
620 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
621 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
623 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
625 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
626 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
627 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
629 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
630 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
631 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
632 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
634 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
636 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
637 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
639 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
640 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
641 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
642 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
643 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
646 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
647 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
648 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
649 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
650 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
651 successful and #f if it wasn't.
653 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
654 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
655 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
656 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
657 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
659 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
660 objects are usually permanent.
662 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
663 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
665 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
667 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
668 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
671 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
675 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
680 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
682 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
683 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
684 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
685 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
687 ** New function `make-object-property'
689 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
690 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
694 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
695 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
699 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
700 source properties eventually.
702 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
704 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
705 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
706 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
708 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
709 will be removed in the next release.
711 ** New define-module option: pure
713 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
718 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
721 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
723 Export names NAME1 ...
725 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
726 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
732 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
735 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
740 ** New function: object->string OBJ
742 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
744 ** New function: port? X
746 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
747 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
749 ** New function: file-port?
751 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
753 ** New function: port-for-each proc
755 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
756 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
757 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
758 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
759 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
761 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
763 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
764 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
765 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
766 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
767 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
770 ** New function: close-fdes fd
772 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
773 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
774 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
775 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
778 ** New function: crypt password salt
780 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
783 ** New function: chroot path
785 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
787 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
789 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
792 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
794 Get or set the priority of the running process.
796 ** New function: getpass prompt
798 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
801 ** New function: flock file operation
803 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
805 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
807 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
810 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
812 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
813 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
814 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
815 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
816 of the temporary file.
818 ** New function: open-input-string string
820 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
821 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
822 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
824 ** New function: open-output-string
826 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
827 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
829 ** New function: get-output-string
831 Return the contents of an output string port.
833 ** New function: identity
837 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
838 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
840 ** New function: inet-pton family address
842 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
843 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
844 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
847 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
848 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
850 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
852 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
853 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
854 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
857 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
858 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
859 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
863 Use `identity' instead.
869 ** Deprecated: return-it
873 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
875 Use `string-length' instead.
879 Use `logior' instead.
881 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
883 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
884 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
885 port-for-each is more flexible.
887 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
888 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
889 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
891 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
893 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
895 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
897 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
899 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
901 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
902 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
904 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
905 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
907 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
908 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
910 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
912 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
913 Removed function: builtin-bindings
915 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
916 Use module system operations for all variables.
918 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
920 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
923 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
925 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
926 The following bugs have been fixed:
928 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
929 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
932 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
933 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
934 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
936 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
937 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
939 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
940 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
943 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
944 The expansion used to be like so:
946 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
948 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
950 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
952 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
953 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
955 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
957 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
958 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
959 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
963 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
964 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
966 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
971 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
972 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
974 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
975 and `d', other keywords allowed.
976 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
978 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
981 * Changes to the C interface
983 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
985 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
986 with "_t". What a concept.
988 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
990 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
992 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
996 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
997 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
999 *** C Functions removed
1001 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1002 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1003 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1004 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1005 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1006 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1007 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1009 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1011 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1013 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1015 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1017 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1018 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1020 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1022 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1025 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1027 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1029 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1031 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments.
1035 scm_call_1 (proc, arg1);
1037 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1039 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list
1044 scm_apply_1 (proc, arg1, args);
1046 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1048 Create a list of the given number of elements.
1050 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1052 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1053 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1055 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1057 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1059 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1060 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1061 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1063 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1065 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1067 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1068 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1069 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
1072 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1074 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
1076 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
1077 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
1079 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
1081 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
1082 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
1083 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
1084 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
1086 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
1087 scm_primitive_property_ref
1088 scm_primitive_property_set_x
1089 scm_primitive_property_del_x
1091 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
1092 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
1094 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
1096 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
1097 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
1098 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
1099 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
1101 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
1103 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
1104 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
1105 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
1106 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
1107 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
1108 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
1109 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
1111 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
1112 scm_remember_upto_here
1114 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
1116 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
1118 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
1119 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
1121 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
1123 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
1125 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
1127 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
1129 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
1131 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
1132 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
1133 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
1134 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
1135 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
1136 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
1138 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
1140 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1142 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
1143 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1144 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
1146 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
1148 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
1149 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1150 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
1152 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
1154 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
1155 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
1158 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
1161 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
1162 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1165 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1167 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
1169 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
1171 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1173 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
1175 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
1177 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
1178 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
1179 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
1180 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1181 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
1182 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
1183 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
1184 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1185 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
1186 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
1187 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
1188 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
1189 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
1190 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
1191 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
1193 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
1194 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
1195 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
1196 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
1197 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
1198 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
1199 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
1200 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
1201 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1202 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
1203 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
1204 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
1205 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
1206 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
1207 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
1208 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1209 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1210 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
1211 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
1212 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
1213 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
1214 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
1215 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
1216 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
1217 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
1218 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
1219 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
1220 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
1221 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
1223 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
1225 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
1227 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
1228 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
1230 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
1232 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
1234 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
1236 Use scm_string_hash instead.
1238 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
1240 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
1242 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
1244 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
1246 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
1249 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
1250 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
1252 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
1254 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
1256 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
1258 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
1260 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
1262 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
1264 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
1266 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
1269 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
1271 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
1273 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
1275 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
1276 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
1278 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
1279 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
1281 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
1283 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
1284 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
1285 scm_module_define, scm_define.
1287 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
1289 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
1291 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
1292 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
1294 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
1295 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
1296 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
1297 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
1299 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
1300 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
1301 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
1303 Use the new ones from above instead.
1305 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
1307 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
1308 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
1309 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
1311 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
1312 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
1314 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
1315 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
1318 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
1319 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
1321 Use the new functions instead.
1323 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
1326 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
1328 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
1330 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
1333 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
1335 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
1338 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
1340 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
1343 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
1344 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
1345 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
1347 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
1349 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
1350 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
1352 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
1353 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
1354 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
1355 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
1358 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
1360 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
1361 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
1362 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
1363 inexact for an exact.
1365 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
1366 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
1367 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
1370 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
1371 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
1372 accept an inexact argument.
1374 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
1375 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
1377 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
1380 ** New number validation macros:
1381 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
1385 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
1387 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
1388 scm_unprotect_object.
1390 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
1392 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
1394 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
1397 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
1399 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
1403 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
1405 * Changes to the distribution
1407 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
1409 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
1410 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
1411 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
1412 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
1413 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
1414 obtain these programs.
1415 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
1416 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
1418 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
1419 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
1420 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
1421 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
1422 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
1424 However, this approach means that minor differences between
1425 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
1426 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
1427 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
1431 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
1434 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
1435 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
1436 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
1437 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
1439 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
1441 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
1443 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
1444 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
1446 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
1447 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
1449 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
1450 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
1452 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
1453 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
1454 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
1455 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
1457 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
1459 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
1463 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
1464 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
1466 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
1468 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
1469 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
1471 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
1472 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
1473 number of objects of that kind.
1475 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
1477 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
1478 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
1479 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
1480 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
1481 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
1483 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
1485 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
1487 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
1489 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
1492 ** New module (ice-9 time)
1494 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
1496 ** New module (ice-9 history)
1498 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
1500 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1502 ** New command line option --debug
1504 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
1506 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
1508 ** New help facility
1510 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
1511 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
1512 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
1513 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
1514 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
1515 (help) gives this text
1517 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
1518 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
1520 Examples: (help help)
1522 (help "output-string")
1524 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
1526 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
1528 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
1529 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
1532 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
1533 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
1534 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
1537 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
1538 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
1539 use absolute filenames when possible.
1541 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
1542 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
1543 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
1546 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
1548 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
1549 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
1550 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
1551 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
1553 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
1555 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
1557 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
1558 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
1559 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
1561 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
1562 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
1563 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
1565 (read-enable 'positions)
1566 (debug-enable 'debug)
1568 ** Backtraces in scripts
1570 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
1574 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
1576 at the top of the script.
1578 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
1579 The second enables backtraces.)
1581 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
1583 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
1584 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
1585 substantially faster than before.
1587 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
1588 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
1590 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
1591 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
1593 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
1595 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
1596 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
1597 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
1599 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
1600 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
1601 when this hook is run in the future.
1603 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
1604 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
1606 ** Improvements to garbage collector
1608 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
1609 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
1612 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
1613 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
1614 more and more memory for certain programs.)
1616 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
1617 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
1619 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
1620 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
1622 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
1623 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
1624 in order not to need further allocation.)
1626 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
1629 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
1630 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
1631 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
1632 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
1634 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
1636 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
1639 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
1641 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
1644 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
1645 GC in percent of total heap size
1648 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
1649 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
1651 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
1653 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
1654 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
1656 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
1658 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
1659 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
1661 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
1663 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
1664 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
1668 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
1669 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
1671 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
1673 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1675 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
1677 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
1679 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
1681 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
1682 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
1684 (simple-format port message . args)
1685 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
1686 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
1687 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
1688 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
1689 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
1690 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
1691 Does not add a trailing newline."
1693 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
1695 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
1696 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
1698 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
1699 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
1701 ** Deprecated: list*
1703 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
1705 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
1707 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
1708 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
1710 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
1711 is returned as result.
1713 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
1715 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
1717 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
1719 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
1720 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
1723 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
1725 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
1727 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
1728 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
1730 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1732 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
1734 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
1736 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1738 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
1740 Thanks to Greg Badros!
1742 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1744 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1745 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
1746 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
1748 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
1751 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
1753 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
1754 the readability of argument checking.
1756 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
1758 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
1760 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
1762 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
1763 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
1764 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
1765 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
1766 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
1767 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
1768 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
1770 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
1772 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
1774 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
1775 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
1777 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
1779 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
1780 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1783 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1785 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1786 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1787 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
1789 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
1790 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
1791 implementation with gmp in the future.
1793 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
1794 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
1795 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
1797 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
1798 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
1799 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
1800 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
1801 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
1802 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
1803 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
1805 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
1806 scm_end_input (object);
1807 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
1808 ptob->flush (object);
1810 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
1811 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
1814 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
1816 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
1818 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
1819 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
1820 removed in a future version.
1822 ** The format of error message strings has changed
1824 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
1825 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
1826 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
1827 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1829 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1830 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1832 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1835 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1837 in your configure.in.
1839 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1844 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1850 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1852 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1856 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1857 (define make-message string-append)
1859 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1861 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1865 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1870 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1874 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1876 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1877 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1879 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1881 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1882 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1883 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1884 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1885 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1886 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1888 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1889 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1890 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1892 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1893 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1894 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1897 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1898 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1899 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1900 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1901 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1903 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1904 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1905 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1906 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1907 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1908 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1909 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1911 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1913 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1914 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1915 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1917 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1918 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1919 KEY in the calling thread.
1921 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1922 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1923 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1924 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1925 associated with the key.
1927 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1929 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1930 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1932 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1934 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1935 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1936 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1938 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1940 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1941 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1943 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1945 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1947 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1948 returned is undefined.
1950 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1951 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1952 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1954 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1955 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1956 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1958 ** New C level GC hooks
1960 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1962 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1965 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1966 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1967 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1969 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1970 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1971 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1973 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1974 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1977 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1979 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1980 allocation parameters
1982 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1983 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1984 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1988 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1989 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1990 scm_default_max_segment_size
1992 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1994 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1995 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1997 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1999 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2000 object and count on the object being protected until
2001 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2003 The functions also have better time complexity.
2005 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2006 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2007 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2008 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2009 are no longer needed.
2011 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2013 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2014 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2015 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2016 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2018 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2020 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2022 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2024 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2025 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2026 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2027 until this issue has been settled.
2029 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2031 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2033 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2036 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2038 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2040 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2041 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2042 descriptors were checked.
2044 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2045 atomically written to a pipe.
2047 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2048 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2049 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2050 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2051 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2052 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2053 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2056 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2057 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2058 is changed without calling tzset.
2060 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2062 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2063 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2064 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2066 (define write-network-long
2067 (lambda (value port)
2068 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2069 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2070 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2072 (define read-network-long
2074 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2075 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
2076 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
2078 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
2079 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
2081 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
2082 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
2083 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
2084 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
2086 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
2087 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
2088 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
2089 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
2093 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
2095 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2099 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
2100 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
2101 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
2107 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
2108 for a description of available commands.
2110 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
2111 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
2112 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
2114 (debug-enable 'backwards)
2116 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
2117 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
2119 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
2121 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
2123 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
2124 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
2125 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
2126 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
2127 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
2128 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
2131 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
2133 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
2134 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
2135 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
2136 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
2138 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
2139 the file and should not be affected by this change.
2141 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
2143 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2145 ** Readline support has changed again.
2147 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
2148 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
2149 to activate readline is now
2151 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
2154 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
2156 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
2157 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
2158 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
2161 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
2162 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
2163 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
2166 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
2167 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
2168 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
2169 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
2170 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
2171 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
2173 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
2174 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
2176 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
2178 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
2179 object it receives is the same string passed to
2180 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
2181 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
2182 string, not the suffix.
2184 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
2185 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
2186 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
2188 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
2190 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
2191 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
2192 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
2193 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
2196 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2198 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
2200 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
2201 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
2202 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
2203 appear from left to right.
2205 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
2208 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
2210 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
2211 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
2213 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2217 *** New function: hook? OBJ
2219 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
2221 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
2223 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
2224 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
2225 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
2227 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
2229 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
2231 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
2233 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
2236 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
2238 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
2239 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
2240 mentioning it here anyway.
2242 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
2244 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
2245 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
2246 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
2247 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
2250 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
2252 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
2254 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
2256 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
2257 otherwise return #f.
2259 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
2261 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
2262 returned by `opendir'.
2264 ** New function: using-readline?
2266 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
2268 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2270 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
2271 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2273 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2275 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2277 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
2278 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
2279 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2281 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
2283 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
2284 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
2286 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
2288 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
2289 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
2290 documentation slots are not yet used.
2292 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
2294 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
2295 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
2296 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
2301 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
2302 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
2303 (string-append x y))
2305 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
2306 can also be used for concatenating strings.
2308 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
2309 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
2310 be made in a clean way.]
2312 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
2314 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2316 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2318 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
2319 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
2321 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2323 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
2325 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2327 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2329 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
2330 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
2331 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
2332 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
2335 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2337 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
2339 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2341 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2343 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
2344 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
2346 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2348 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
2350 Evaluates the body of a special form.
2352 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
2354 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
2355 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
2356 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
2357 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
2358 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
2359 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
2361 This should not make any difference for most users.
2363 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
2365 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
2366 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
2368 *** New functions for applying generic functions
2370 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
2371 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
2372 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
2373 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
2374 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
2376 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
2378 It is now replaced by:
2380 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
2382 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2383 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2385 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2387 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
2388 This might change when we get the new module system.
2390 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
2394 Changes since Guile 1.3:
2396 * Changes to mailing lists
2398 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
2400 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
2403 * Changes to the distribution
2405 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
2407 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
2408 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
2409 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
2410 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
2411 you explicitly specify it.
2413 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
2414 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
2415 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
2416 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
2417 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
2420 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
2421 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
2422 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
2423 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
2425 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
2426 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
2427 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
2430 You can activate the readline support by issuing
2432 (use-modules (readline-activator))
2435 from your ".guile" file, for example.
2437 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2439 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
2440 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
2441 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
2442 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
2444 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
2445 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
2448 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2450 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
2451 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
2452 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
2453 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
2454 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
2455 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
2456 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
2457 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
2469 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
2470 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
2471 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
2472 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
2473 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
2478 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
2479 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
2487 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
2492 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
2493 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
2496 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
2497 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
2498 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
2499 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
2501 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
2503 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
2505 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
2506 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
2508 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
2510 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
2512 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
2513 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
2515 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
2518 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
2520 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
2522 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
2524 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
2526 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
2528 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
2530 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
2531 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
2532 when the hook was created.
2534 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
2535 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
2536 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
2537 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
2538 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
2539 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
2540 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
2541 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
2542 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
2544 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
2545 the dlopen family of functions.
2547 ** New function `provided?'
2549 - Function: provided? FEATURE
2550 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
2551 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
2552 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
2554 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
2556 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
2557 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
2558 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
2559 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2562 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2563 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
2564 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
2565 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
2567 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
2568 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
2569 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
2572 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
2573 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
2574 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
2575 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
2576 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
2577 but with the flag set.
2579 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
2581 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
2582 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
2584 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
2585 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
2586 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
2587 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
2588 available Scheme format implementations.
2590 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
2591 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
2592 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
2593 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
2594 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
2595 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
2596 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
2597 output is to the current error port if available by the
2598 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
2601 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
2602 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
2603 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
2604 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
2605 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
2606 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
2607 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
2608 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
2610 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
2611 be executed at a time.
2614 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
2616 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
2617 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
2618 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
2620 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
2621 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
2622 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
2623 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
2624 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
2625 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
2626 general form of a directive is:
2628 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
2630 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
2632 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2634 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
2635 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
2636 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
2639 Any (print as `display' does).
2643 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
2647 S-expression (print as `write' does).
2651 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
2657 print number sign always.
2660 print comma separated.
2662 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
2668 print number sign always.
2671 print comma separated.
2673 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
2679 print number sign always.
2682 print comma separated.
2684 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
2690 print number sign always.
2693 print comma separated.
2695 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
2700 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
2704 print a number as a Roman numeral.
2707 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
2710 print a number as an ordinal English number.
2713 print a number as a cardinal English number.
2718 prints `y' and `ies'.
2721 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2724 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2729 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
2733 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
2736 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
2737 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
2739 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2742 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
2743 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
2745 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2748 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
2750 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
2752 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2755 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
2757 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
2759 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2762 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
2765 The sign appears before the padding.
2773 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
2775 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
2780 print N page separators.
2790 newline is ignored, white space left.
2793 newline is left, white space ignored.
2798 relative tabulation.
2804 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
2806 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
2809 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
2811 converts by `string-capitalize'.
2814 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
2817 converts by `string-upcase'.
2820 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
2822 jumps N arguments forward.
2825 jumps 1 argument backward.
2828 jumps N arguments backward.
2831 jumps to the 0th argument.
2834 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2836 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2837 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2839 take argument from N.
2842 true test conditional.
2845 if-else-then conditional.
2851 default clause follows.
2854 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2856 at most N iterations.
2859 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2862 args from the rest of arguments.
2865 args from the rest args (lists).
2876 aborts if N <= M <= K
2878 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2881 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2884 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2890 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2892 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2894 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2895 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2896 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2897 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2898 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2899 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2903 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2907 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2913 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2916 Print a `#\space' character
2918 print N `#\space' characters.
2921 Print a `#\tab' character
2923 print N `#\tab' characters.
2926 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2927 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2928 must be a positive decimal number.
2931 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2932 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2933 be processed by `read'.
2936 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2937 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2938 be processed by `read'.
2941 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2944 prints format version.
2947 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2948 and format it accordingly.
2950 *** Configuration Variables
2952 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2953 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2954 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2955 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2958 format:symbol-case-conv
2959 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2960 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2961 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2962 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2963 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2965 format:iobj-case-conv
2966 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2967 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2970 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2973 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2979 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2980 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2981 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2982 `format' padding style.
2985 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2986 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2987 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2988 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2992 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2993 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2994 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2997 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2998 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2999 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3000 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3001 parameters or modifiers)).
3004 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3006 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3008 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3009 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3011 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3012 string-downcase! functions.
3014 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3015 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3017 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3020 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3023 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3024 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3026 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3028 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3029 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3031 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3032 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3033 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3034 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3035 would if STRING were input.
3037 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3039 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3040 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3041 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3042 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3045 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3047 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3048 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3051 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3053 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3054 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3056 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3057 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3059 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3060 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3061 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3062 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3064 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3065 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3067 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3068 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3069 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3071 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3072 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3074 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
3075 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
3076 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
3077 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
3078 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
3080 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
3081 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
3082 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
3083 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
3084 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
3085 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
3087 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
3088 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
3089 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
3092 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
3093 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
3094 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
3095 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
3096 the following grammar:
3097 ((apples (single-char #\a))
3098 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
3099 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
3100 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
3101 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
3102 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
3103 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
3104 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
3105 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
3106 last option in its combination)
3108 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
3109 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
3110 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
3111 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
3113 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
3114 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
3115 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
3117 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3118 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3119 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
3121 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
3122 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
3123 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
3124 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
3125 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
3126 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
3127 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
3128 ordinary argument strings.
3130 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
3131 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
3132 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
3133 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
3135 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
3136 as a list, associated with the empty list.
3138 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
3139 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
3140 - a required option is omitted
3141 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
3142 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
3143 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
3144 - an option predicate fails
3149 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
3152 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
3153 (verbose (required? #f)
3156 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
3157 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
3158 (predicate ,string?))))
3160 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
3161 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3163 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3164 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
3165 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
3166 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
3169 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
3171 It will be removed in a few releases.
3173 ** New syntax: lambda*
3174 ** New syntax: define*
3175 ** New syntax: define*-public
3176 ** New syntax: defmacro*
3177 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
3178 Guile now supports optional arguments.
3180 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
3181 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
3182 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
3183 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
3184 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
3186 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
3187 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
3188 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
3190 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
3192 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
3193 and examples for `lambda*':
3196 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
3198 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
3199 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
3200 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
3201 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
3202 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
3203 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
3204 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
3205 can be checked with the bound? macro.
3207 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
3209 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
3210 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
3211 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
3212 are given as keywords are bound to values.
3214 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
3215 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
3216 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
3217 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
3218 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
3219 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
3220 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
3221 and until the procedure is called.
3223 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
3225 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
3226 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
3227 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
3228 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
3229 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
3230 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
3231 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
3232 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
3233 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
3234 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
3236 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
3237 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
3238 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
3239 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
3242 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
3244 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
3245 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
3246 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
3247 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
3249 ** New syntax: and-let*
3250 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
3252 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
3253 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
3254 (<variable> <expression>)
3257 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
3258 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
3259 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
3262 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
3263 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
3264 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
3265 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
3266 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
3267 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
3268 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
3270 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
3271 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
3272 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
3273 shadow earlier bindings.
3275 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
3277 ** New sorting functions
3279 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
3280 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
3281 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
3282 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
3284 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
3285 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
3288 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3289 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
3290 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
3292 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
3293 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
3294 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
3295 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
3297 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3298 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
3299 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
3300 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
3301 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
3304 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3305 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
3306 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
3307 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
3308 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
3309 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
3311 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
3312 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
3313 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
3315 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3316 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
3317 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
3320 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
3321 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
3322 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
3324 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
3325 Added for compatibility with scsh.
3327 ** New built-in random number support
3329 *** New function: random N [STATE]
3330 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
3331 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
3332 returned have a uniform distribution.
3334 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
3335 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
3336 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
3337 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
3338 effect of the `random' operation.
3340 *** New variable: *random-state*
3341 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
3342 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
3343 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
3344 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
3345 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
3348 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
3349 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3350 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3351 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
3352 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
3354 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
3355 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3356 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3357 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
3358 initialized using SEED.
3360 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
3361 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
3362 range between 0 and 1.
3364 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3365 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
3366 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
3367 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
3368 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
3369 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
3370 or a uniform vector of doubles.
3372 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3373 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
3374 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
3375 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
3376 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
3377 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3379 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
3380 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
3381 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
3382 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
3384 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
3385 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
3386 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
3387 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3389 *** New function: random:exp STATE
3390 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
3391 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
3393 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
3395 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
3398 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
3399 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
3402 ** New function: make-guardian
3403 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
3404 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
3405 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
3406 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
3407 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
3409 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
3410 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
3411 one object if at all.
3413 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
3414 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
3415 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
3417 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
3418 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
3419 read again in last-in first-out order.
3421 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
3422 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
3424 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
3426 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
3427 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
3428 file position is used.
3430 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
3431 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
3432 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
3434 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
3435 redefined using seek.
3437 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
3438 size is not supplied.
3440 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
3441 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
3443 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
3444 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
3446 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
3448 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
3449 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
3450 and returns the contents as a single string.
3452 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
3453 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
3454 lists in serial order.
3456 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
3457 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
3458 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
3460 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
3461 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
3462 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
3463 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
3465 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
3466 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
3467 and #f if an error occured.
3469 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
3471 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
3472 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
3473 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
3474 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
3476 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
3478 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
3481 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
3483 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
3486 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3490 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
3491 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
3493 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
3494 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
3498 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3500 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
3502 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3503 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3505 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3507 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
3508 might change when we get the new module system.
3510 ** The smob interface
3512 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
3513 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
3515 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
3517 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
3521 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
3522 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
3523 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
3524 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
3525 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
3526 will be freed by the default free function.
3528 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3529 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
3530 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3531 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3533 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3534 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
3535 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3536 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3538 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
3540 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
3541 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
3545 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
3546 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3547 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3549 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
3550 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
3551 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3552 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3554 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
3555 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
3556 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
3558 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
3559 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
3560 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
3561 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
3563 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
3564 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
3565 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
3567 *** scm_newptob has been removed
3571 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
3573 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
3574 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
3575 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
3577 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
3578 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
3579 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
3581 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
3582 a string port's buffer.
3584 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
3585 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
3586 function pointers which together define the current random number
3587 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
3588 number library functions.
3590 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
3593 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
3594 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
3597 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
3598 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3600 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
3601 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
3603 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
3604 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
3607 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
3608 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
3609 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
3610 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
3612 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
3613 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
3614 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
3615 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
3616 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
3617 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
3618 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
3620 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
3621 by libguile and the application.
3623 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3624 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3625 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
3626 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
3628 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
3629 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
3631 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3632 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
3633 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
3635 ** Random number library functions
3636 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
3637 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
3638 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
3640 The default random state is stored in:
3642 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
3643 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
3644 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
3649 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
3651 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
3652 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
3653 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
3654 isn't a random state.
3656 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
3657 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
3659 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
3660 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
3661 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
3662 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
3664 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3665 Return 32 random bits.
3667 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3668 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
3670 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3671 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
3673 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3674 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
3676 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
3677 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3679 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
3680 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3681 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
3685 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
3687 * Changes to the distribution
3689 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
3690 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
3691 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
3694 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
3695 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
3696 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
3698 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
3699 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
3700 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
3701 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
3704 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
3705 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
3706 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
3708 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3710 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
3712 *** Function: batch-mode?
3714 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
3717 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
3719 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
3720 case has not been implemented.
3722 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
3723 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
3724 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
3727 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
3728 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
3730 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
3732 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3734 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
3736 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
3737 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
3740 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
3741 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
3742 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
3743 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
3746 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
3748 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
3749 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
3750 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
3751 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
3752 find those libraries.
3754 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
3755 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
3758 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
3760 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
3761 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
3762 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
3763 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
3765 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
3766 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
3767 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
3771 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
3773 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
3774 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
3775 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
3778 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
3779 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
3780 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
3781 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3783 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3784 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3787 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3788 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
3789 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
3790 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
3791 compiler where to find the libraries.
3793 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
3794 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
3795 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
3797 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
3798 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
3799 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
3800 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
3801 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
3805 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3807 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
3808 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
3809 internationalization support.
3811 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
3812 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
3813 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
3814 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
3815 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
3817 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
3818 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
3819 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
3820 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
3821 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
3823 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
3824 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
3825 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
3826 any GNU mirror site.
3828 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3830 ** New function: add-history STRING
3831 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3832 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3833 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3835 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3837 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3838 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3839 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3842 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3843 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3844 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3846 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3848 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3851 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3852 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3855 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3856 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3857 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3858 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3859 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3860 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3862 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3863 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3864 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3865 of the form mentioned above.
3867 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3868 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3869 returned in the special `rest' list.
3871 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3872 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3874 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3876 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3878 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3880 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3881 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3882 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3883 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3884 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3885 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3886 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3887 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3890 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3892 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3894 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3895 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3898 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3899 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3900 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3904 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3905 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3906 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3907 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3908 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3909 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3910 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3911 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3914 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3916 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3917 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3918 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3920 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3922 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3923 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3925 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3926 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3927 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3929 Why do we have this function?
3930 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3931 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3932 primitive, and display it differently, and
3933 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3934 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3937 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3938 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3941 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3942 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3943 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3944 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3946 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3947 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3950 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3951 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3953 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3955 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3956 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3957 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3958 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3959 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3960 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3961 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3964 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3966 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3967 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3969 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3970 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3971 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3972 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3973 properly continue the print chain.
3975 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3976 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3977 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3978 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3979 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3980 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3981 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3982 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3984 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3985 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3986 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3987 safest to not check for these pairs.
3989 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3990 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3991 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3992 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3994 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3996 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3997 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3999 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4001 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4003 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4004 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4005 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4007 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4008 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4009 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4011 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4012 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4013 the following functions and macros:
4015 Function: make-fluid
4017 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4018 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4019 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4020 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4021 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4023 Function: fluid? OBJ
4025 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4027 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4028 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4030 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4031 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4033 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4035 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4036 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4037 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4038 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4039 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4040 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4041 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4043 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4045 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4046 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4047 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4048 should evaluate to a fluid.
4050 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4052 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4053 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4054 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4055 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4056 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4058 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4061 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4063 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4065 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4067 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4070 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4071 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4072 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4073 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4074 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
4077 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
4078 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
4079 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
4081 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
4082 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
4083 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
4085 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
4086 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
4087 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4088 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
4090 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
4091 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
4092 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4093 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
4095 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
4096 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
4097 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
4098 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
4100 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
4101 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
4102 their revealed counts set to zero.
4104 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4105 Returns an integer file descriptor.
4107 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4108 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
4110 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4111 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
4113 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4114 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
4115 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
4117 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
4118 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
4119 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
4121 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
4122 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
4123 default environment inherited by child processes.
4125 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
4126 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
4127 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
4129 The return value is unspecified.
4131 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
4132 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
4133 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
4134 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
4135 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
4137 The return value is unspecified.
4139 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
4140 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
4148 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
4149 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
4152 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
4155 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
4156 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
4157 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
4159 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
4160 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
4161 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
4162 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
4165 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
4166 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
4168 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
4169 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
4170 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
4171 the `environ' procedure.
4173 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
4174 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
4177 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
4178 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
4180 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
4181 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
4182 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
4183 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
4185 *** procedure: times
4186 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
4187 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
4188 return a selected component:
4191 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
4195 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
4198 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
4202 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
4203 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
4207 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
4208 terminated child processes.
4210 ** Removed: list-length
4211 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
4212 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
4214 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
4216 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
4218 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
4220 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
4221 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
4222 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
4223 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
4225 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
4226 extra complexity it introduces.
4228 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
4229 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
4231 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
4232 variable to any non-empty value.
4234 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
4235 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
4237 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4239 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
4240 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
4242 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
4244 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
4245 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
4247 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
4249 ** vector handling routines
4251 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
4252 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
4253 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
4254 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
4255 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
4257 ** pair and list routines
4259 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
4262 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
4264 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
4267 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4269 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
4271 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
4272 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
4273 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
4274 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
4275 site-specific initialization code.
4277 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
4278 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
4279 initialization processes.
4281 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
4282 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
4283 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
4284 initialized properly.
4286 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
4287 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
4288 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
4290 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
4291 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
4292 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
4293 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
4294 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
4296 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
4298 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
4299 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
4300 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
4301 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
4302 objects the smob refers to get marked.
4304 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
4305 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
4306 which look like this:
4309 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
4311 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
4312 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
4315 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
4316 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
4319 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
4321 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
4322 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
4323 you will need to change your functions slightly.
4325 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
4326 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
4327 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
4328 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
4329 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
4331 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
4332 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
4334 int (*free) (SCM port);
4335 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
4336 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
4337 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
4341 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
4342 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
4343 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
4345 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
4348 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
4349 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
4350 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
4352 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
4353 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
4354 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
4357 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
4361 struct timeval *timeout);
4363 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
4364 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
4365 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
4366 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
4367 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
4368 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
4370 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
4371 scm_catch_body_t body,
4373 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4376 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
4377 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
4378 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
4379 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
4380 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
4381 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
4383 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
4385 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4388 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
4389 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
4390 spawning threads from application C code.
4392 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
4393 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
4394 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
4395 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
4396 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
4397 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
4399 ** Removed functions:
4401 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
4402 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
4404 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
4406 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
4407 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
4409 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
4411 ** mbstrings are now removed
4413 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
4414 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
4416 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
4418 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
4419 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
4420 their new names and arguments:
4422 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
4423 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
4424 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
4425 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
4428 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
4430 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
4432 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
4435 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
4437 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
4438 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
4439 pass a #f arg to catch.
4441 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
4443 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
4444 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
4447 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
4448 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
4449 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
4450 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
4451 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
4452 reclaim its storage.
4454 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
4455 worrying that some other function you call will call
4456 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
4457 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
4458 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
4459 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
4462 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
4464 * Changes to the distribution
4466 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
4467 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
4470 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
4471 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
4473 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4474 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4476 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
4478 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
4479 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
4480 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
4482 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4484 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
4485 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
4486 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
4487 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
4488 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
4489 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
4491 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
4492 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
4493 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
4496 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
4497 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
4498 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
4499 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
4501 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
4502 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
4503 libraries to your link command:
4505 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
4506 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
4507 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4508 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4510 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
4511 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
4512 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
4514 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4516 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
4517 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
4520 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
4522 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
4523 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
4524 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
4525 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
4526 searched is system dependent.
4528 (dynamic-object? VAL)
4530 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
4532 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
4534 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
4535 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
4537 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4539 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
4540 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
4541 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
4542 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
4543 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
4546 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4548 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
4549 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
4550 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
4551 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
4552 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
4554 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
4556 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
4557 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
4559 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
4561 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
4562 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
4563 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
4566 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
4568 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
4569 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
4570 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
4571 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
4573 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
4574 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
4576 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
4578 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
4579 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
4581 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
4583 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
4584 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
4592 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
4594 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
4595 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
4596 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
4597 a more informative way.
4599 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
4600 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
4601 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
4602 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
4603 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
4604 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
4606 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
4607 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
4610 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
4611 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
4612 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
4615 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
4616 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
4617 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
4618 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
4619 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
4620 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
4622 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
4623 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
4624 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
4625 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
4628 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
4629 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
4630 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
4631 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
4632 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
4633 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
4635 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
4636 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
4637 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
4638 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
4639 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
4641 *** regexp functions
4643 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
4644 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
4645 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
4647 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
4648 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
4649 with SCSH regular expressions.
4651 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
4652 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
4653 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
4654 position of STR at which to begin matching.
4656 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
4657 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
4658 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
4659 `string-match' returns `#f'.
4661 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
4662 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
4663 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
4664 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
4665 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
4666 match strings against the compiled regexp.
4668 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
4669 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
4670 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
4671 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
4672 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
4674 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4676 **** Constant: regexp/extended
4677 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
4678 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
4679 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
4681 **** Constant: regexp/icase
4682 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
4683 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
4685 **** Constant: regexp/newline
4686 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
4688 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
4691 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
4692 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4693 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
4695 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
4696 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4697 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
4699 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
4700 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
4701 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
4702 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
4703 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
4706 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4708 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
4709 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
4710 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
4711 used when different portions of a string are passed to
4712 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
4713 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
4715 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
4716 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
4717 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
4719 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
4720 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
4723 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
4724 and replace them with the contents of another string.
4726 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
4727 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
4728 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
4729 may be one of the following arguments:
4731 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
4733 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
4735 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
4736 the regexp match is written.
4738 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
4739 following the regexp match is written.
4741 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
4742 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
4745 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
4746 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
4747 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
4748 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
4749 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
4750 which should be matched against this regular expression.
4752 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
4755 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
4756 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
4757 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
4758 written out to PORT.
4760 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
4761 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
4762 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
4763 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
4764 will return after processing a single match.
4766 *** Match Structures
4768 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
4769 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
4770 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
4771 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
4772 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
4773 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
4776 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
4777 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
4778 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
4779 information about the original target string that was matched against a
4780 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4782 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4783 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4784 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4786 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4787 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4788 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
4789 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
4790 number N did not match, return `#f'.
4792 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
4793 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
4795 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
4796 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
4798 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
4799 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
4801 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
4802 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
4804 **** Function: match:count MATCH
4805 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
4806 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
4807 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
4809 **** Function: match:string MATCH
4810 Return the original TARGET string.
4812 *** Backslash Escapes
4814 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
4815 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
4816 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
4817 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
4818 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
4819 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
4821 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
4822 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
4823 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
4824 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
4825 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
4826 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
4827 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
4828 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4830 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4831 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4832 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4833 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4834 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4835 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4836 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4838 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4839 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4840 return the resulting string.
4842 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4843 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4844 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4845 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4846 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4847 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4848 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4849 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4850 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4851 translated to the single character `*'.
4853 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4854 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4855 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4856 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4857 consecutive backslashes:
4859 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4861 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4862 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4863 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4865 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4866 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4867 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4868 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4869 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4870 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4872 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4874 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4875 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4876 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4877 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4878 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4879 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4880 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4881 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4882 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4883 cumbersome escape syntax.
4885 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4887 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4889 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4891 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4894 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4896 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4898 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4901 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4902 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4903 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4904 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4905 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4907 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4908 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4909 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4910 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4911 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4912 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4913 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4916 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4917 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4918 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4921 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4922 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4924 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4925 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4926 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4927 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4928 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4929 installed, you can say:
4931 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4934 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4936 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4937 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4938 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4939 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4940 new dynamic roots and threads.
4943 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4945 * Changes to the distribution.
4947 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4949 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4950 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4951 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4952 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4953 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4954 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4955 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4956 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4958 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4961 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4962 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4967 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4969 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4970 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4972 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4973 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4974 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4975 the (command-line) function.
4976 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4977 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4978 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4980 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4981 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4982 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4983 command line arguments
4984 -ds do -s script at this point
4985 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4986 -h, --help display this help and exit
4987 -v, --version display version information and exit
4988 \ read arguments from following script lines
4990 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4991 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4993 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4996 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5000 (main (command-line))
5002 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5004 ekko a speckled gecko
5006 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5007 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5008 following list of command-line arguments:
5010 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5012 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5013 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5014 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5015 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5016 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5018 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5020 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5022 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5023 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5026 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5027 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5028 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5029 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5031 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5032 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5033 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5034 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5036 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5040 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5044 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5046 ekko a speckled gecko
5048 Unix expands this into
5050 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5052 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5053 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5055 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5057 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5058 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5060 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5061 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5062 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5063 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5064 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5065 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5066 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5067 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5068 it only terminates the argument list.)
5069 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5070 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5071 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5072 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5073 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5074 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
5075 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
5076 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
5078 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5080 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
5081 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
5082 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
5083 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
5084 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
5086 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
5087 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
5088 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
5090 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
5092 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
5093 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
5094 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
5095 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
5098 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
5099 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5100 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5102 * Changes to Scheme functions
5104 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
5105 and disabled by default.
5107 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
5108 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
5109 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
5110 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
5112 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
5114 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
5116 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
5117 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
5119 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
5120 (read-set! keywords #f)
5122 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
5123 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
5124 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
5127 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
5128 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
5129 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
5132 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
5133 support for Scheme functions.
5135 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5136 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
5137 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
5138 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
5141 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5142 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
5143 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
5146 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
5147 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
5148 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
5151 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
5152 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
5153 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
5154 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
5155 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
5156 display the result as a prompt.
5157 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
5159 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
5160 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
5161 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
5164 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
5165 procedure of zero arguments.
5167 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
5168 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
5169 argument is bound in the current module.
5171 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
5172 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
5173 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
5174 public bindings into the current module.
5176 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
5177 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
5179 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
5180 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
5182 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
5183 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
5185 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
5186 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
5188 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
5189 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
5191 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
5192 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
5193 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
5194 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
5195 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
5197 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
5198 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
5199 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
5200 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
5202 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
5205 ** Changes to I/O functions
5207 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
5208 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
5209 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
5211 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
5212 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
5213 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
5215 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
5216 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
5218 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
5219 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
5220 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
5221 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
5223 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
5225 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
5226 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
5228 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
5229 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
5230 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
5231 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
5232 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
5235 'trim omit delimiter from result
5236 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
5237 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
5238 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
5240 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
5242 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
5243 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
5245 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
5246 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
5247 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
5248 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
5249 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
5251 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
5252 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
5253 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
5255 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
5256 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
5257 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
5258 above, and defaults to 'peek.
5260 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
5261 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5263 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
5264 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
5266 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
5268 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
5269 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
5270 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
5271 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
5272 a delimiting character.
5273 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
5275 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
5276 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
5277 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
5278 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
5279 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
5280 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
5282 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
5283 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5285 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
5286 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
5287 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
5289 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
5290 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
5291 the array to read and write.
5293 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
5294 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
5297 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
5299 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
5302 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
5303 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
5304 Values for COMMAND are:
5306 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
5307 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
5308 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
5309 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
5310 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
5311 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
5312 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
5313 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
5315 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
5317 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
5318 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
5319 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
5320 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
5321 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
5322 corresponding return set will be the same.
5324 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
5327 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
5328 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
5329 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
5330 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
5331 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
5332 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
5333 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
5334 special file being created.
5336 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
5337 clashing with various SCSH forks.
5339 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
5340 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
5341 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
5342 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
5343 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
5344 and originating address.
5346 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
5347 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
5348 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
5350 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
5353 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
5354 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
5357 (status:exit-val STATUS)
5358 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
5359 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
5360 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
5361 this function returns #f.
5363 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
5364 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
5365 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
5368 (status:term-sig STATUS)
5369 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
5370 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
5373 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
5374 a valid STATUS value.
5376 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
5378 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
5379 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
5381 Component Accessor Setter
5382 ========================= ============ ============
5383 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
5384 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
5385 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
5386 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
5387 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
5388 year tm:year set-tm:year
5389 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
5390 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
5391 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
5392 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
5393 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
5395 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
5396 describing the host system:
5399 ============================================== ================
5400 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
5401 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
5402 release level of the operating system utsname:release
5403 version level of the operating system utsname:version
5404 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
5406 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
5407 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
5408 system's user database:
5411 ====================== =================
5412 user name passwd:name
5413 user password passwd:passwd
5416 real name passwd:gecos
5417 home directory passwd:dir
5418 shell program passwd:shell
5420 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
5421 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
5422 system's group database:
5425 ======================= ============
5426 group name group:name
5427 group password group:passwd
5429 group members group:mem
5431 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
5432 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
5436 ========================= ===============
5437 official name of host hostent:name
5438 alias list hostent:aliases
5439 host address type hostent:addrtype
5440 length of address hostent:length
5441 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
5443 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
5444 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
5448 ========================= ===============
5449 official name of net netent:name
5450 alias list netent:aliases
5451 net number type netent:addrtype
5452 net number netent:net
5454 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
5455 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
5459 ========================= ===============
5460 official protocol name protoent:name
5461 alias list protoent:aliases
5462 protocol number protoent:proto
5464 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
5465 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
5469 ========================= ===============
5470 official service name servent:name
5471 alias list servent:aliases
5472 port number servent:port
5473 protocol to use servent:proto
5475 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
5476 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
5479 ======================================== ===============
5480 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
5481 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
5482 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
5483 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
5485 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
5486 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
5487 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
5489 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
5490 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
5492 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
5493 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
5495 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
5496 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
5498 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
5500 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
5502 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
5503 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
5504 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
5506 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
5507 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
5508 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
5509 return the remaining characters as a string.
5511 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
5512 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
5513 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
5515 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
5517 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5519 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
5522 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
5525 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
5526 and returns the array
5528 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
5529 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
5530 the user to interpret the data both ways.
5532 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5534 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
5535 symbol's value from C code:
5537 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
5538 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
5539 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
5540 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
5542 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
5543 without assigning them a value.
5545 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
5546 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
5547 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
5549 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
5550 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
5551 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
5553 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
5554 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
5556 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
5557 doesn't actually care about that.
5559 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
5560 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
5561 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
5563 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
5564 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
5565 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
5566 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
5567 which we have just created and initialized.
5569 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
5570 should one occur. We call it like this:
5571 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
5573 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
5574 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
5575 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
5576 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
5577 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
5578 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
5581 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
5582 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
5583 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
5584 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
5585 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
5586 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
5587 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
5590 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
5591 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
5592 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
5593 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
5594 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
5597 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
5598 scm_internal_catch, except:
5600 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
5601 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
5602 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
5603 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
5606 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
5607 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
5608 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
5610 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
5611 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
5612 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
5613 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
5616 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
5617 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
5618 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
5620 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
5621 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
5622 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
5623 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
5624 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
5626 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
5627 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
5628 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
5630 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
5631 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
5632 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
5634 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
5635 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
5637 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
5638 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
5639 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
5642 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
5643 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
5644 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
5645 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
5646 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
5647 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
5648 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
5651 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
5652 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
5654 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
5655 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
5656 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
5657 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
5658 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
5661 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
5662 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
5664 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
5665 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
5668 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
5669 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
5671 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5674 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
5675 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
5676 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
5677 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
5678 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
5679 given the following arguments:
5681 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5683 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
5685 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
5687 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5690 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
5691 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
5692 command-line arguments.
5694 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
5695 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
5696 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
5697 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
5698 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
5699 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
5702 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5705 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
5706 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
5708 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
5709 rearranged slightly. They are now:
5711 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5712 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5713 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
5714 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
5716 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5717 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5719 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5720 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
5721 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5722 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
5724 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5725 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5727 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
5728 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
5730 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
5732 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
5733 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
5734 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
5737 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
5738 returns a port instead of an FD object.
5740 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
5741 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
5746 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
5749 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
5751 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
5752 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
5753 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
5754 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
5756 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
5758 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
5760 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
5761 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
5762 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
5763 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
5764 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
5765 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
5766 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
5767 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
5768 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
5769 for more information.
5771 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
5772 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
5774 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
5775 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
5776 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
5777 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
5778 following two lines at the top of the file:
5780 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5783 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5784 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5785 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5787 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
5789 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5791 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
5794 (display (car args))
5795 (if (pair? (cdr args))
5797 (loop (cdr args)))))
5800 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
5801 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
5802 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
5803 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
5804 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
5805 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
5809 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
5812 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
5815 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
5817 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
5818 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
5819 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
5820 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
5821 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
5824 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
5825 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
5826 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
5827 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
5828 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5831 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5834 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5835 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5836 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5839 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5840 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5841 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5843 to see a backtrace, and
5844 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5845 to see them by default.
5849 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5851 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5853 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5854 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5857 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5858 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5859 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5860 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5863 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5864 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5865 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5866 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5867 functions which inspired them.
5869 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5870 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5874 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5876 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5878 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5879 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5882 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5883 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5884 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5886 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5887 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5888 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5889 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5890 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5892 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5894 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5895 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5896 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5899 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5902 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5904 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5905 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5906 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5907 above should serve their purposes.
5909 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5910 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5911 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5912 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5914 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5917 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5918 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5919 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5920 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5922 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5923 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5924 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5925 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5927 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5928 for the `read' function.
5931 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5932 to that of `integer?'.
5934 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5935 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5937 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5938 it simply returns the object's property list.
5940 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5941 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5942 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5943 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5945 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5947 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5950 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5952 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5953 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5955 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5957 void (*main_func) (),
5960 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5961 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5962 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5963 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5964 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5966 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5967 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5968 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5969 know which arguments have been processed.
5971 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5972 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5973 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5974 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5975 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5977 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5978 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5979 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5980 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5981 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5982 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5983 people from making that mistake.
5985 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5986 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5988 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5990 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5994 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5997 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5998 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5999 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6000 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6003 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6004 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6005 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6006 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6009 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6010 have been added to the Guile library.
6012 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6013 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6014 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6017 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6018 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6019 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6021 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6022 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6023 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6024 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6025 argument from the list.
6028 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6031 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6032 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6034 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6035 to a Scheme port object.
6037 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6038 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6043 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6045 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6046 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6047 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6048 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6049 code as a special datatype.
6051 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6052 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6053 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6054 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6055 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6058 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6059 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6060 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6061 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6062 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6064 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6067 Copyright information:
6069 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6071 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6072 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6073 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6074 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6076 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6077 of this document, or of portions of it,
6078 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6079 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6084 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"