1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Note: During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the
9 latest prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.
11 Changes in 1.9.14 (since the 1.9.13 prerelease):
13 ** Command line additions
15 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
16 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
19 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
21 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
25 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
27 * New modules (see the manual for details)
29 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
30 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
31 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
32 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
33 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
34 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
35 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
36 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
37 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
38 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
39 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
40 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
41 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
42 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
44 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
46 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
47 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
48 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
50 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
51 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
52 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
54 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
56 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
57 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
58 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
60 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
62 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
63 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
66 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
68 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
70 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
71 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
73 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
75 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
76 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
77 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
79 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
80 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
82 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
83 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
84 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
87 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
89 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
90 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
92 ** Remove old Emacs interface
94 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
95 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
96 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
99 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
101 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
102 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
103 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
106 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
108 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
110 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
111 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
112 parentheses. This option is on by default.
114 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
115 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
116 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
117 so this option is off by default.
119 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
121 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
122 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
123 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
125 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
126 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
128 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
130 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
131 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
132 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
134 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
135 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
136 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
137 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
139 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
140 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
143 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
145 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
148 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
150 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
151 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
152 include `/path/to/lib'.
154 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
156 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
159 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
161 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
162 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
163 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
164 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
167 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
169 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
170 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
171 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
173 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
175 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
176 just for the operator position.
178 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
180 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
181 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
183 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
185 ** Support for R6RS libraries
187 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
188 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
189 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
190 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
191 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
193 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
195 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
196 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
197 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
199 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
201 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
204 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
205 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
206 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
209 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
210 mentioned in that compatibility list.
212 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
214 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
215 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
216 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
217 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
219 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
220 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
221 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
222 code, and simplifying debugging.
224 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
225 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
227 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
228 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
229 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
230 both of these situations.
232 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
233 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
234 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
235 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
237 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
239 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
240 not apply to the compiler.
242 ** No more `local-eval'
244 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
245 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
246 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
247 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
250 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
251 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
254 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
256 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
257 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
258 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
260 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
261 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
262 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
265 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
266 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
267 will be created if needed.
269 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
270 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
272 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
274 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
275 in the next prerelease.
277 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
279 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
281 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
283 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
285 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
287 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
288 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
289 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
291 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
292 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
293 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
294 procedures' docstrings for more information.
296 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
297 combining arity and formals. For example:
299 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
300 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
302 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
305 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
307 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
308 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
309 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
310 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
312 ** New language: ECMAScript
314 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
315 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
316 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
317 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
319 ** New language: Brainfuck
321 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
322 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
323 languages. See the manual for details, or
324 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
325 Brainfuck language itself.
327 ** New language: Elisp
329 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
330 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
331 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
333 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
335 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
336 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
337 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
338 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
341 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
343 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
344 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
345 properties. For example:
351 (procedure-properties foo)
352 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
354 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
357 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
359 (procedure-properties bar)
360 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
362 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
365 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
368 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
370 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
371 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
374 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
375 (define (helper x) ...)
377 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
379 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
382 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
383 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
385 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
387 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
388 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
389 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
391 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
393 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
394 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
395 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
396 for more information.
398 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
400 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
401 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
403 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
405 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
406 in the manual, for more information.
408 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
411 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
412 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
414 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
416 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
418 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
420 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
421 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
422 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
423 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
424 in response to user feedback.
426 ** Support for `letrec*'
428 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
429 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
430 manual, for more details.
432 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
434 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
435 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
440 (define baz (+ bar 20))
443 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
444 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
445 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
448 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
449 in earlier Guile dialects.
451 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
453 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
454 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
455 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
456 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
458 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
459 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
460 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
461 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
464 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
466 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
467 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
470 (define (helper x) ...)
471 (define-macro (foo bar)
474 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
477 (define (helper x) ...)
478 (define-macro (foo bar)
479 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
481 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
485 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
487 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
489 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
496 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
497 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
500 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
502 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
503 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
506 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
508 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
509 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
510 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
512 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
514 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
518 (define-macro (ref x) x)
521 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
522 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
523 macros before code that uses them.
525 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
528 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
530 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
531 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
532 (double-literal 2) => 4
534 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
535 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
536 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
538 (eval-when (load compile eval)
539 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
540 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
541 (double-literal 2) => 4
543 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
545 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
547 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
548 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
549 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
550 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
553 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
555 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
556 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
558 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
560 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
561 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
562 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
564 ** Incompatible change to #'
566 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
567 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
568 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
569 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
571 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
573 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
576 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
578 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
579 in the manual, for more information.
581 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
582 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
584 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
585 works (with compiled procedures)
587 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
588 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
589 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
590 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
592 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
593 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
594 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
595 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
596 number of stack frames.
598 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
599 active in the current continuation
601 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
602 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
603 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
604 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
606 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
608 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
610 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
611 through to the expanded code
613 This should result in better backtraces.
615 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
617 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
619 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
621 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
622 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
625 ** New procedure, `define!'
627 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
628 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
629 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
630 less verbose than `module-define!'.
632 ** All modules have names now
634 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
635 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
636 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
637 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
639 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
641 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
642 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
643 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
644 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
646 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
647 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
648 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
649 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
650 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
651 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
653 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
654 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
655 days of Guile's modules.
657 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
658 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
659 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
660 record accessors appropriately.
662 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
663 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
664 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
666 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
667 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
668 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
670 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
671 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
674 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
675 namespaces instead of values.
677 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
679 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
680 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
681 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
682 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
684 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
686 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
688 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
690 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
691 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
693 ** Modules load within a known environment
695 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
696 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
697 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
700 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
702 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
703 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
704 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
706 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
707 values to the expected number
709 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
710 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
711 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
713 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
714 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
715 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
716 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
718 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
719 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
720 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
722 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
725 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
727 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
729 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
730 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
731 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
732 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
733 the interpreter would proceed.
735 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
736 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
737 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
738 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
740 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
742 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
743 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
744 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
745 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
746 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
747 you to contact the Guile developers.
749 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
751 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
752 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
753 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
755 ** psyntax is now the default expander
757 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
758 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
761 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
762 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
763 code in question was memoized.
765 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
766 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
767 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
768 `x432' instead of `x'.
770 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
771 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
772 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
773 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
775 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
777 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
778 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
779 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
782 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
783 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
784 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
785 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
787 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
789 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
790 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
791 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
792 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
796 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
799 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
800 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
801 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
803 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
804 by nonhygienic macros.
806 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
807 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
810 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
811 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
812 (define-macro (ref x)
819 (define-syntax bind-x
821 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
822 (define-macro (ref x)
826 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
827 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
828 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
829 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
830 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
831 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
833 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
835 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
836 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
838 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
839 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
842 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
844 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
845 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
846 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
847 transformer procedures.
849 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
851 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
852 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
853 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
855 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
857 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
858 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
859 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
860 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
862 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
864 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
865 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
866 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
869 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
871 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
872 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
873 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
874 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
876 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
878 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
879 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
880 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
883 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
884 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
885 documentation for more details.
887 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
889 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
890 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
892 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
894 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
895 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
896 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
897 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
898 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
899 addressed by element and not by byte.
901 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
902 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
903 endianness, as one would expect.
905 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
906 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
907 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
908 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
911 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
912 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
914 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
915 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
917 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
919 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
921 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
922 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
923 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
925 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
926 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
928 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
930 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
932 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
933 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
935 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
937 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
938 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
941 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
943 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
944 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
946 ** Unicode characters
948 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
949 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
950 probably be introduced at some point.
954 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
955 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
956 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
958 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
959 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
960 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
961 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
965 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
967 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
969 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
970 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
971 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
972 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
973 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
976 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
977 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
978 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
980 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
982 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
983 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
984 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
987 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
988 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
989 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
991 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
993 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
995 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
996 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
997 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
998 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1000 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1002 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1003 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1004 Unicode code points.
1006 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1008 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1009 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1010 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1013 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1015 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1016 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1017 and was unmaintained.
1019 ** Compile-time warnings
1021 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1022 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1023 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1024 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1027 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1028 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1029 `#:warnings' as above.
1031 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1032 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1033 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1035 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1037 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1040 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1042 This slightly improves program startup times.
1044 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1046 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1048 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1050 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1051 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1052 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1053 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1055 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1057 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1058 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1059 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1060 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1062 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1063 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1064 implement method combinations.
1066 ** Applicable struct support
1068 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1069 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1070 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1071 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1072 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1073 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1074 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1075 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1079 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1080 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1081 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1082 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1083 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1085 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1087 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1088 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1089 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1090 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1092 ** eqv? not a generic
1094 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1095 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1096 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1097 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1099 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1101 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1102 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1103 functions are deprecated.
1105 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1107 See "File System" in the manual.
1109 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1111 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1112 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1113 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1115 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1117 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1118 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1119 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1121 ** Fast bit operations.
1123 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1124 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1125 it's for number crunching too.
1127 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1129 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1130 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1131 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1132 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1134 ** R6RS block comment support
1136 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1137 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1139 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1141 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1142 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1144 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1145 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1146 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1148 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1149 ;; separate compilation phase.
1150 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1152 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1154 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1156 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1158 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1159 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1160 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1161 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1162 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1165 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1166 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1167 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1168 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1169 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1171 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1173 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1175 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1177 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1179 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1181 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1183 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1184 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1185 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1187 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1189 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1190 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1192 ** New readline history functions
1194 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1195 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1196 History library functions.
1198 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1199 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1201 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1204 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1206 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1207 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1208 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1209 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1210 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1211 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1212 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1214 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1215 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1217 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1218 `before-signal-stack'.
1220 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1221 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1222 a deprecation warning.
1224 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1226 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1227 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1228 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1229 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1232 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1234 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1235 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1236 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1237 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1239 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1240 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1242 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1244 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1245 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1246 left in the default environment.
1248 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1250 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1251 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1252 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1253 information for the error.
1255 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1257 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1258 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1259 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1261 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
1263 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
1264 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
1266 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
1268 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
1271 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
1273 ** Remove obsolete print-options
1275 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
1278 ** Remove obsolete read-options
1280 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
1281 obsolete, so they have been removed.
1283 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
1285 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
1288 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
1290 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
1291 on their replacements.
1293 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
1295 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
1296 should use Guile with Emacs.
1298 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1300 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1301 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1302 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1303 `with-throw-handler'.
1305 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1307 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1308 and is no longer used.
1310 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1312 `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1313 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1314 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!'
1316 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1318 * Changes to the C interface
1320 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1322 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1323 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1324 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1326 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1327 code easier and less error-prone.
1329 ** New procedures: `scm_to_latin1_stringn', `scm_from_latin1_stringn'
1331 Use these procedures when you know you have latin1-encoded or
1332 ASCII-encoded strings.
1334 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
1336 Use these procedures if you want to encode or decode from a particular
1339 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1341 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1342 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1343 available to C. Have fun!
1345 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1347 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1349 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1352 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1353 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1355 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1357 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1358 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1359 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1362 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1364 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1365 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1366 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1367 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1370 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1372 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1373 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1374 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1375 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1376 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1377 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1379 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1380 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1381 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1382 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1383 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1384 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1386 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1387 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1388 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1389 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1390 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1392 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1393 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1394 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1395 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1396 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1397 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1399 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1400 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1401 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1402 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1405 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1406 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1409 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1411 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1412 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1413 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1414 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1415 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1417 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1419 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1420 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1422 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1424 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1425 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1427 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1429 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1430 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1432 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1434 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1435 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1436 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1437 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1438 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1441 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1443 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1444 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1445 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1446 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1449 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1450 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1451 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1452 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1454 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
1456 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
1457 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
1458 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
1461 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
1462 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
1463 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
1464 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
1466 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1468 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1470 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1472 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1475 ** Inline vector allocation
1477 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1478 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1479 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1480 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1483 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1485 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1486 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1490 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1491 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1492 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1493 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1494 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1496 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1498 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1499 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1500 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1501 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1502 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1503 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1507 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1508 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1509 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1510 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1512 ** Deprecate trampolines
1514 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1515 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1516 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1517 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1518 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1520 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
1522 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
1524 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1526 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1527 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1528 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1529 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1531 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1533 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1534 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1535 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1536 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1537 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1538 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1539 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1541 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1543 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1544 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1547 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1548 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1550 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1552 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1553 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1555 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1557 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1558 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1559 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1560 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1562 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1564 * Changes to the distribution
1566 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1568 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1569 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1574 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
1575 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
1577 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1579 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1580 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1582 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1584 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1585 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1586 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1589 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1591 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1592 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1594 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1596 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1597 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1599 ** Parallel installability fixes
1601 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1602 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1603 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1605 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1606 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1607 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1610 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1612 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1613 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1614 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1615 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
1616 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1618 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
1620 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
1621 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
1622 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
1623 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
1624 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
1625 searched before the global site directory.
1627 ** New dependency: libgc
1629 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1631 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1633 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1634 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1636 ** New dependency: libffi
1638 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1642 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1646 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1647 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1648 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1651 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1653 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1655 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1659 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1660 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1661 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1662 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1663 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1664 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1665 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1666 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1667 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1668 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1669 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1671 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1673 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1674 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1675 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1678 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1681 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1683 * New features (see the manual for details)
1685 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1687 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1689 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1690 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1691 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1693 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1695 * Changes to the distribution
1697 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1699 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1700 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1702 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1704 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1705 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1710 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1711 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1712 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1713 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1714 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1715 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1716 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1717 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1718 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1719 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1720 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1721 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1722 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1723 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1725 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1726 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1727 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1728 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1729 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1732 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1734 * Infrastructure changes
1736 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1738 The new repository can be accessed using
1739 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1740 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1742 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1744 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1746 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1750 * New features (see the manual for details)
1752 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1753 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1754 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1756 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1757 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1758 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1759 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1761 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1763 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1764 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1765 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1769 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1770 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1772 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1773 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1775 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1776 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1778 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1779 lead to a stack overflow.
1781 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1782 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1783 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1784 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1785 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1786 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1787 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1788 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1789 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1790 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1791 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1792 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1793 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1794 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1795 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1796 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1799 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1803 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1804 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1805 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1806 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1807 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1808 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1809 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1810 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1811 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1812 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1813 system and library calls.
1814 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1815 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1816 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1817 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1818 uniform vectors on AIX.
1819 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1820 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1821 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1822 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1823 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1825 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1829 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1831 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1833 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1834 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1836 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1838 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1840 * Changes to the distribution
1842 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1844 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1845 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1846 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1848 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1850 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1853 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1855 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1862 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1863 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1864 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1865 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1866 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1867 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1868 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1870 * Implementation improvements
1872 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1873 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1876 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1878 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1880 ** set-program-arguments
1883 * Incompatible changes
1885 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1887 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1888 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1889 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1890 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1895 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1896 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1897 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1898 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1899 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1900 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1902 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1903 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1904 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1905 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1906 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1907 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1908 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1909 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1910 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1911 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1912 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1913 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1914 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1915 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1916 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1917 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
1920 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
1922 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
1924 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1926 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
1927 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
1928 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
1929 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
1930 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
1931 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
1939 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
1941 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
1943 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
1945 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
1947 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
1949 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
1951 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
1952 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
1953 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
1955 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
1957 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
1959 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
1960 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
1962 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
1964 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
1965 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
1967 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
1969 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
1971 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
1973 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
1975 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
1977 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
1979 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
1981 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
1983 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
1985 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
1986 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
1987 file was on a different device.
1990 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
1992 * Changes to the distribution
1994 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
1996 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
1998 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2000 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2002 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2004 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2007 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2009 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2010 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2011 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2012 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2013 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2014 items like the versioned share directory name
2015 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2017 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2018 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2019 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2020 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2021 with each micro release during a stable series.
2023 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2025 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2026 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2027 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2028 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2029 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2032 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2033 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2034 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2035 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2038 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2039 in which case "null" threads are used.
2041 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2042 "Blocking", and others.
2044 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2046 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2048 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2049 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2050 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2051 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2052 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2054 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2055 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2057 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2059 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2060 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2062 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2065 This SRFI is always available.
2067 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2069 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2070 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2071 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2072 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2075 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2077 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2078 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2079 parameters without currying.
2081 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2083 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2084 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2086 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2087 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2090 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2091 with a renaming import, for example.
2093 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2095 The official version is good enough now.
2097 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2099 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2100 provided. Use 'make html'.
2102 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2104 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2105 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2106 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2107 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2109 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2111 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2114 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2116 ** New command line option `-L'.
2118 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2120 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2122 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2123 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2125 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2127 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2128 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2130 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2132 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2133 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2136 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2139 (define-module (demo)
2143 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2146 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2148 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2150 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2151 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2152 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2154 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2156 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2157 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2159 ** New function hashx-remove!
2161 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2163 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2164 barriers and dynamic states.
2166 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2167 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2168 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2171 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2172 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2173 Barriers" in the manual.
2175 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2176 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2178 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2180 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2181 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2182 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2183 variable %load-path.
2185 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2187 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2188 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2190 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2191 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2192 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2194 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2195 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2197 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2198 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2199 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2201 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2202 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2203 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2206 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2207 substrings and read-only strings.
2209 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2210 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2213 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2215 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2224 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2225 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2226 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2228 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2229 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2230 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2231 on an ANSI terminal:
2233 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2234 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2237 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2239 See the manual for details.
2241 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2243 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2246 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2248 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2249 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2250 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2251 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2253 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2254 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2255 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2258 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2260 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2261 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2272 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2276 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2281 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2285 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2289 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2292 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2293 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2294 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2295 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2297 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2298 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2301 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2304 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2308 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2310 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2311 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2312 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2315 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2318 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2320 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2323 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2324 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2327 (define-module (foo)
2332 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2333 has been detected is to
2335 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2336 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2337 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2340 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2343 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2345 to your .guile init file.
2347 ** New define-module option: :replace
2349 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2352 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2353 for the core binding `format'.
2355 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2357 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2358 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2360 (define-module (foo)
2361 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2363 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2366 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2368 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2369 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2370 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2372 ** New function: effective-version
2374 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2375 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2376 to the distribution" above.
2378 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2380 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2381 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2383 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2385 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2386 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2388 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2390 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2391 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2394 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2396 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2398 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2400 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2401 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2402 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2405 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2406 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2407 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2408 'system-async-mark'.
2410 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2411 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2413 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2414 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2415 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2418 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2420 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2421 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2424 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2425 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2427 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2428 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2429 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2430 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2431 level for the current thread.
2433 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2435 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2437 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2438 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2441 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2443 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2445 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2448 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2450 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2453 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2454 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2455 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2457 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2458 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2459 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2460 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2471 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2473 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2476 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2478 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2479 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2480 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2491 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2493 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2494 them is also done exactly, of course:
2499 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2500 for exact arguments.
2502 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2503 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2505 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2507 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2508 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2509 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2511 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2512 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2514 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2516 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2519 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2521 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2522 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2524 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2527 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2528 result when both its arguments are exact.
2530 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2532 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2533 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2534 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2536 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2538 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2539 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2540 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2542 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2545 ** pretty-print has more options.
2547 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2548 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2549 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2551 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2553 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2554 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2555 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2557 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2559 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2560 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2562 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2564 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2565 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2568 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2570 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2571 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2572 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2573 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2574 without the soft port blocking.
2576 ** Deprecated: undefine
2578 There is no replacement for undefine.
2580 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2581 have been discouraged.
2583 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2584 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2585 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2588 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2590 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2592 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2593 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2594 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2595 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2598 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2599 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2600 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2602 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2604 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2605 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2606 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2607 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2608 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2609 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2611 * Changes to the C interface
2613 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2614 take a 'delete' function argument.
2616 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2617 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2619 This is an incompatible change.
2621 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2623 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2624 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2625 --disable-deprecated.
2627 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2629 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2630 Scheme values has been added.
2632 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2633 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2636 - int scm_is_* (...)
2638 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2639 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2641 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2643 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2644 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2647 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2649 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2650 scm_from_int for ints.
2652 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2653 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2654 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2656 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2658 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2659 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2660 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2663 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2665 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2667 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2669 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2670 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2671 following alternatives.
2673 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2674 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2675 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2676 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2678 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2679 do the validating for you.
2681 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2682 have been discouraged.
2684 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2685 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2688 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2690 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2691 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2694 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2696 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2699 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2702 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2704 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2705 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2707 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2708 scm_truncate_number should have.
2710 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2711 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2713 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2716 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2717 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2718 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2720 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2721 easier to use from C.
2723 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2724 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2726 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2727 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2728 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2731 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2732 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2733 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2734 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2737 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2738 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2739 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2740 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2741 and is thus quite efficient.
2743 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2745 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2746 about the character encoding.
2748 Replace according to the following table:
2750 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2751 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2752 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2753 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2754 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2755 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2756 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2757 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2758 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2760 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2761 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2763 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2765 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2766 now also available to C code.
2768 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2770 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2771 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2772 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2774 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2777 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2779 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2780 unceremoniously removed.
2782 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2783 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2784 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2786 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2787 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2788 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2789 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2790 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2791 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2794 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2796 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2797 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2798 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2799 manual for more details.
2801 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2802 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2804 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2805 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2806 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2808 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2810 Migrate according to the following table:
2812 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2813 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2814 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2815 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2816 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2817 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2818 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2820 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2821 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2822 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2823 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2824 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2825 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2826 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2828 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2830 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2831 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2833 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2834 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2835 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2836 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2838 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2840 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2841 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2842 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2844 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2845 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2847 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2848 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2849 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2850 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2852 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2854 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2855 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2856 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2857 prevent a potential memory leak:
2864 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2866 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2867 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2869 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2870 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2877 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2878 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2882 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2884 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2886 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2887 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2888 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2890 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2891 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2893 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2895 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2897 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2898 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2899 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2901 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2902 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2904 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2905 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2906 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2907 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2910 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2912 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2913 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2914 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2916 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
2918 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
2919 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
2921 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
2923 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
2924 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
2926 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
2928 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
2929 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
2930 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
2932 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
2934 You should not have used them.
2936 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
2938 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
2939 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
2941 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
2943 This macro is not intended for public use.
2945 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
2947 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
2949 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
2951 Use scm_is_real instead.
2953 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
2955 Use scm_is_complex instead.
2957 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
2959 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
2960 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
2962 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
2963 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
2965 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
2966 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
2968 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
2970 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
2973 ** New function: scm_effective_version
2975 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2976 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2977 to the distribution" above.
2979 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
2981 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
2982 arguments are now passed directly:
2984 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
2986 This is an incompatible change.
2988 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
2990 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
2991 function in the init section.
2993 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
2995 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
2997 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
2998 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
2999 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3000 stays roughly constant.
3002 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3003 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3004 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3005 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3006 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3009 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3010 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3011 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3012 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3014 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3015 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3016 objects for every type.
3019 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3021 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3023 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3025 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3026 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3027 initializes a new cell (see below).
3029 ** New functions for memory management
3031 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3032 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3033 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3034 cause aborts in long running programs.
3036 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3037 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3039 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3040 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3041 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3042 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3043 details and for upgrading instructions.
3045 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3046 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3047 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3049 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3051 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3052 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3053 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3054 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3055 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3057 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3058 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3059 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3061 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3062 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3064 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3066 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3067 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3068 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3069 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3070 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3072 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3074 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3077 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3079 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3081 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3083 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3084 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3086 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3088 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3089 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3091 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3092 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3094 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3096 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3098 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3099 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3100 blocking it is not well defined.
3102 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3104 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3105 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3106 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3107 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3108 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3109 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3110 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3111 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3112 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3113 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3114 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3115 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3116 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3117 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3118 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3119 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3120 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3121 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3122 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3123 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3124 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3125 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3126 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3127 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3128 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3129 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3130 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3131 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3132 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3133 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3134 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3136 * Changes to bundled modules
3140 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3141 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3142 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3143 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3144 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3147 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3149 * Changes to the distribution
3151 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3153 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3155 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3156 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3157 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3158 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3159 indicate major changes in Guile.
3161 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3162 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3163 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3164 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3166 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3167 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3168 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3169 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3170 micro version number.
3172 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3174 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3176 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3177 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3179 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3181 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3182 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3183 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3185 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3187 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3188 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3189 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3192 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3194 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3197 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3199 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3200 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3202 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3204 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3205 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3208 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3210 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3213 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3216 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3218 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3220 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3221 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3222 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3224 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3226 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3228 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3231 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3233 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3235 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3237 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3238 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3239 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3241 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3243 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3245 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3246 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3255 See README there for more info.
3257 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3258 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3261 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3263 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3265 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3267 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3268 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3269 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3271 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3273 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3274 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3275 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3277 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3278 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3280 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3283 (oop goops describe)
3285 (oop goops active-slot)
3286 (oop goops composite-slot)
3288 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3289 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3290 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3292 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3294 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3295 in the default environment:
3297 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3298 %read-line write-line
3300 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3301 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3303 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3305 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3308 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3309 can be used for similar functionality.
3311 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3313 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3314 it defines two procedures:
3316 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3318 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3319 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3320 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3323 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3325 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3326 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3327 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3328 write large strings.
3330 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3332 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3333 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3335 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3337 for complete documentation.
3339 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3341 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3342 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3343 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3344 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3346 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3347 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3351 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3352 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3353 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3356 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3359 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3360 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3362 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3363 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3366 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3369 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3371 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3373 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3375 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3377 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3378 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3379 Scheme programs easier.
3381 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3382 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3383 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3384 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3385 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3388 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3389 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3391 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3394 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3396 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3397 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3398 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3401 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3403 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3405 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3406 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3407 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3408 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3409 was also ASCII, for example.
3411 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3413 tag - no replacement.
3414 fseek - replaced by seek.
3415 list* - replaced by cons*.
3417 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3421 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3422 (define m (make-safe-module))
3423 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3424 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3425 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3427 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3429 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3430 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3431 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3433 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3435 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3436 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3437 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3438 from the issues related to the module system.
3440 *** New function: load-extension
3442 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3444 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3446 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3447 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3448 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3450 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3452 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3453 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3454 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3455 support dynamic linking).
3457 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3459 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3460 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3461 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3462 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3465 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3466 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3467 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3468 library and initialize it explicitly.
3470 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3471 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3473 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3475 (define-module (foo bar))
3477 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3479 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3481 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3482 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3484 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3485 (null-environment 5)
3486 (interaction-environment)
3492 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3494 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3495 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3496 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3497 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3499 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3500 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3501 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3502 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3503 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3504 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3505 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3506 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3507 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3508 one eval to the next.
3510 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3511 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3512 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3513 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3514 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3516 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3517 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3518 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3519 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3520 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3521 used in a lexical environment.
3523 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3524 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3525 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3526 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3527 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3528 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3530 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3532 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3533 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3534 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3535 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3536 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3538 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3539 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3540 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3542 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3543 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3545 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3546 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3547 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3549 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3550 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3552 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3553 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3554 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3555 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3558 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3559 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3560 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3561 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3563 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3564 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3565 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3567 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3568 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3569 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3570 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3571 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3573 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3575 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3576 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3577 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3579 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3580 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3581 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3583 See manual for more info.
3585 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3587 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3588 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3589 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3591 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3593 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3594 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3595 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3597 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3598 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3599 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3600 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3602 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3604 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3605 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3607 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3608 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3609 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3610 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3611 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3614 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3615 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3616 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3617 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3618 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3619 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3621 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3622 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3623 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3624 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3625 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3627 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3628 objects are usually permanent.
3630 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3631 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3633 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3635 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3636 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3639 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3643 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3648 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3650 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3651 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3652 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3653 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3655 ** New function `make-object-property'
3657 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3658 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3662 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3663 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3667 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3668 source properties eventually.
3670 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3672 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3673 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3674 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3676 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3677 will be removed in the next release.
3679 ** New define-module option: pure
3681 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3686 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3689 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3691 Export names NAME1 ...
3693 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3694 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3698 (define-module (foo)
3700 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3703 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3708 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3710 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3712 ** New function: port? X
3714 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3715 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3717 ** New function: file-port?
3719 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3721 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3723 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3724 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3725 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3726 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3727 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3729 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3731 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3732 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3733 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3734 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3735 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3738 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3740 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3741 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3742 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3743 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3746 ** New function: crypt password salt
3748 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3751 ** New function: chroot path
3753 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3755 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3757 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3760 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3762 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3764 ** New function: getpass prompt
3766 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3769 ** New function: flock file operation
3771 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3773 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3775 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3778 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3780 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3781 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3782 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3783 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3784 of the temporary file.
3786 ** New function: open-input-string string
3788 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3789 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3790 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3792 ** New function: open-output-string
3794 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3795 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3797 ** New function: get-output-string
3799 Return the contents of an output string port.
3801 ** New function: identity
3803 Return the argument.
3805 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3806 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3808 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3810 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3811 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3812 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3815 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3816 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3818 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3820 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3821 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3822 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3825 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3826 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3827 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3831 Use `identity' instead.
3837 ** Deprecated: return-it
3841 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3843 Use `string-length' instead.
3845 ** Deprecated: flags
3847 Use `logior' instead.
3849 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3851 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3852 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3853 port-for-each is more flexible.
3855 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3856 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3857 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3859 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3861 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3863 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3865 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3867 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3869 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3870 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3872 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3873 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3875 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3876 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3878 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3880 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3881 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3883 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3884 Use module system operations for all variables.
3886 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3888 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3891 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3893 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3894 The following bugs have been fixed:
3896 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3897 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3900 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3901 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3902 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3904 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3905 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3907 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3908 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3911 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3912 The expansion used to be like so:
3914 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3916 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
3918 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
3920 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
3921 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
3923 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
3925 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
3926 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
3927 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
3931 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
3932 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
3934 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
3939 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
3940 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
3942 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
3943 and `d', other keywords allowed.
3944 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
3946 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
3949 * Changes to the C interface
3951 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
3953 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
3954 with "_t". What a concept.
3956 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
3958 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
3960 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
3964 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
3965 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
3967 *** C Functions removed
3969 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
3970 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
3971 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
3972 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
3973 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
3974 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
3975 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
3977 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
3979 Use scm_mem2string instead.
3981 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
3983 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
3985 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
3986 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
3988 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
3990 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
3993 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
3995 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
3997 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
3999 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4000 Evaluation" in the manual.
4002 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4004 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4005 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4007 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4009 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4010 Constructors" in the manual.
4012 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4014 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4015 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4017 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4019 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4021 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4022 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4023 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4025 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4027 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4029 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4030 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4031 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4034 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4036 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4038 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4039 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4041 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4043 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4044 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4045 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4046 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4048 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4049 scm_primitive_property_ref
4050 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4051 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4053 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4054 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4056 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4058 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4059 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4060 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4061 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4063 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4065 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4066 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4067 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4068 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4069 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4070 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4071 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4073 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4074 scm_remember_upto_here
4076 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4078 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4080 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4081 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4083 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4085 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4087 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4089 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4091 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4093 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4094 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4095 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4096 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4097 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4098 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4100 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4102 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4104 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4105 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4106 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4108 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4110 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4111 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4112 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4114 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4116 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4117 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4120 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4123 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4124 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4127 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4129 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4131 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4133 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4135 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4137 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4139 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4140 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4141 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4142 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4143 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4144 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4145 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4146 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4147 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4148 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4149 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4150 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4151 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4152 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4153 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4155 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4156 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4157 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4158 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4159 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4160 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4161 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4162 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4163 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4164 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4165 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4166 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4167 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4168 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4169 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4170 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4171 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4172 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4173 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4174 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4175 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4176 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4177 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4178 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4179 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4180 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4181 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4182 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4183 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4185 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4187 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4189 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4190 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4192 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4194 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4196 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4198 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4200 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4202 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4204 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4206 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4208 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4211 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4212 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4214 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4216 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4218 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4220 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4222 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4224 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4226 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4228 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4231 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4233 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4235 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4237 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4238 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4240 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4241 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4243 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4245 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4246 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4247 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4249 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4251 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4253 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4254 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4256 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4257 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4258 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4259 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4261 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4262 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4263 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4265 Use the new ones from above instead.
4267 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4269 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4270 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4271 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4273 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4274 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4276 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4277 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4280 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4281 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4283 Use the new functions instead.
4285 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4288 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4290 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4292 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4295 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4297 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4300 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4302 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4305 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4306 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4307 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4309 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4311 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4312 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4314 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4315 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4316 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4317 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4320 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4322 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4323 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4324 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4325 inexact for an exact.
4327 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4328 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4329 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4332 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4333 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4334 accept an inexact argument.
4336 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4337 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4339 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4342 ** New number validation macros:
4343 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4347 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4349 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4350 scm_unprotect_object.
4352 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4354 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4356 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4359 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4361 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4365 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4367 * Changes to the distribution
4369 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4371 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4372 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4373 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4374 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4375 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4376 obtain these programs.
4377 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4378 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4380 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4381 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4382 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4383 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4384 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4386 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4387 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4388 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4389 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4393 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4396 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4397 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4398 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4399 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4401 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4403 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4405 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4406 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4408 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4409 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4411 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4412 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4414 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4415 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4416 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4417 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4419 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4421 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4425 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4426 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4428 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4430 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4431 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4433 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4434 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4435 number of objects of that kind.
4437 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4439 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4440 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4441 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4442 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4443 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4445 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4447 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4449 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4451 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4454 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4456 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4458 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4460 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4462 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4464 ** New command line option --debug
4466 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4468 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4470 ** New help facility
4472 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4473 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4474 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4475 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4476 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4477 (help) gives this text
4479 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4480 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4482 Examples: (help help)
4484 (help "output-string")
4486 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4488 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4490 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4491 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4494 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4495 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4496 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4499 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4500 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4501 use absolute filenames when possible.
4503 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4504 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4505 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4508 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4510 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4511 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4512 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4513 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4515 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4517 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4519 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4520 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4521 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4523 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4524 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4525 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4527 (read-enable 'positions)
4528 (debug-enable 'debug)
4530 ** Backtraces in scripts
4532 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4536 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4538 at the top of the script.
4540 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4541 The second enables backtraces.)
4543 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4545 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4546 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4547 substantially faster than before.
4549 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4550 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4552 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4553 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4555 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4557 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4558 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4559 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4561 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4562 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4563 when this hook is run in the future.
4565 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4566 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4568 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4570 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4571 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4574 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4575 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4576 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4578 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4579 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4581 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4582 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4584 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4585 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4586 in order not to need further allocation.)
4588 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4591 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4592 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4593 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4594 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4596 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4598 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4601 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4603 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4606 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4607 GC in percent of total heap size
4610 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4611 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4613 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4615 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4616 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4618 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4620 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4621 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4623 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4625 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4626 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4630 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4631 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4633 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4635 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4637 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4639 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4641 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4643 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4644 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4646 (simple-format port message . args)
4647 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4648 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4649 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4650 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4651 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4652 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4653 Does not add a trailing newline."
4655 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4657 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4658 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4660 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4661 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4663 ** Deprecated: list*
4665 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4667 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4669 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4670 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4672 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4673 is returned as result.
4675 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4677 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4679 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4681 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4682 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4685 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4687 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4689 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4690 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4692 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4694 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4696 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4698 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4700 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4702 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4704 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4706 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4707 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4708 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4710 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4713 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4715 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4716 the readability of argument checking.
4718 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4720 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4722 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4724 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4725 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4726 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4727 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4728 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4729 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4730 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4732 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4734 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4736 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4737 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4739 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4741 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4742 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4745 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4747 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4748 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4749 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4751 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4752 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4753 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4755 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4756 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4757 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4758 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4759 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4760 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4761 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4763 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4764 scm_end_input (object);
4765 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4766 ptob->flush (object);
4768 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4769 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4772 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4774 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4776 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4777 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4778 removed in a future version.
4780 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4782 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4783 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4784 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4785 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4787 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4788 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4790 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4793 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4795 in your configure.in.
4797 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4802 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4808 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4810 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4814 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4815 (define make-message string-append)
4817 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4819 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4823 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4828 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4832 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4834 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4835 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4837 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4839 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4840 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4841 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4842 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4843 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4844 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4846 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4847 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4848 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4850 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4851 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4852 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4855 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4856 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4857 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4858 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4859 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4861 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4862 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4863 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4864 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4865 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4866 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4867 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4869 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4871 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4872 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4873 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4875 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4876 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4877 KEY in the calling thread.
4879 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4880 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4881 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4882 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4883 associated with the key.
4885 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4887 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4888 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4890 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4892 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4893 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4894 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4896 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4898 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4899 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4901 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4903 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4905 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4906 returned is undefined.
4908 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4909 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4910 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4912 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4913 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4914 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4916 ** New C level GC hooks
4918 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
4920 scm_before_gc_c_hook
4923 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
4924 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
4925 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
4927 scm_before_mark_c_hook
4928 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
4929 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
4931 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
4932 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
4935 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
4937 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
4938 allocation parameters
4940 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
4941 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
4942 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
4946 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
4947 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
4948 scm_default_max_segment_size
4950 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
4952 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
4953 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
4955 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
4957 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
4958 object and count on the object being protected until
4959 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
4961 The functions also have better time complexity.
4963 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
4964 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
4965 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
4966 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
4967 are no longer needed.
4969 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
4971 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
4972 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
4973 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
4974 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
4976 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
4978 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
4980 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
4982 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
4983 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
4984 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
4985 until this issue has been settled.
4987 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
4989 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
4991 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
4994 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
4996 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4998 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
4999 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5000 descriptors were checked.
5002 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5003 atomically written to a pipe.
5005 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5006 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5007 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5008 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5009 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5010 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5011 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5014 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5015 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5016 is changed without calling tzset.
5018 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5020 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5021 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5022 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5024 (define write-network-long
5025 (lambda (value port)
5026 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5027 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5028 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5030 (define read-network-long
5032 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5033 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5034 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5036 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5037 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5039 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5040 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5041 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5042 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5044 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5045 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5046 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5047 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5051 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5053 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5057 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5058 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5059 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5065 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5066 for a description of available commands.
5068 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5069 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5070 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5072 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5074 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5075 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5077 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5079 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5081 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5082 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5083 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5084 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5085 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5086 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5089 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5091 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5092 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5093 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5094 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5096 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5097 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5099 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5101 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5103 ** Readline support has changed again.
5105 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5106 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5107 to activate readline is now
5109 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5112 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5114 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5115 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5116 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5119 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5120 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5121 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5124 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5125 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5126 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5127 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5128 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5129 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5131 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5132 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5134 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5136 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5137 object it receives is the same string passed to
5138 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5139 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5140 string, not the suffix.
5142 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5143 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5144 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5146 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5148 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5149 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5150 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5151 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5154 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5156 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5158 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5159 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5160 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5161 appear from left to right.
5163 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5166 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5168 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5169 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5171 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5175 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5177 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5179 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5181 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5182 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5183 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5185 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5187 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5189 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5191 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5194 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5196 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5197 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5198 mentioning it here anyway.
5200 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5202 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5203 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5204 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5205 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5208 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5210 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5212 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5214 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5215 otherwise return #f.
5217 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5219 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5220 returned by `opendir'.
5222 ** New function: using-readline?
5224 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5226 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5228 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5229 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5231 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5233 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5235 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5236 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5237 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5239 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5241 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5242 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5244 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5246 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5247 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5248 documentation slots are not yet used.
5250 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5252 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5253 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5254 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5259 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5260 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5261 (string-append x y))
5263 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5264 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5266 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5267 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5268 be made in a clean way.]
5270 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5272 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5274 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5276 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5277 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5279 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5281 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5283 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5285 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5287 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5288 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5289 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5290 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5293 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5295 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5297 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5299 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5301 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5302 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5304 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5306 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5308 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5310 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5312 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5313 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5314 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5315 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5316 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5317 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5319 This should not make any difference for most users.
5321 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5323 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5324 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5326 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5328 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5329 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5330 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5331 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5332 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5334 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5336 It is now replaced by:
5338 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5340 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5341 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5343 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5345 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5346 This might change when we get the new module system.
5348 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5352 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5354 * Changes to mailing lists
5356 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5358 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5361 * Changes to the distribution
5363 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5365 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5366 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5367 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5368 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5369 you explicitly specify it.
5371 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5372 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5373 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5374 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5375 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5378 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5379 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5380 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5381 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5383 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5384 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5385 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5388 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5390 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5393 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5395 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5397 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5398 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5399 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5400 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5402 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5403 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5406 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5408 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5409 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5410 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5411 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5412 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5413 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5414 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5415 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5427 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5428 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5429 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5430 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5431 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5436 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5437 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5445 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5450 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5451 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5454 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5455 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5456 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5457 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5459 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5461 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5463 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5464 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5466 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5468 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5470 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5471 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5473 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5476 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5478 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5480 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5482 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5484 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5486 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5488 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5489 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5490 when the hook was created.
5492 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5493 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5494 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5495 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5496 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5497 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5498 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5499 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5500 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5502 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5503 the dlopen family of functions.
5505 ** New function `provided?'
5507 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5508 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5509 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5510 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5512 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5514 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5515 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5516 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5517 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5520 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5521 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5522 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5523 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5525 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5526 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5527 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5530 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5531 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5532 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5533 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5534 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5535 but with the flag set.
5537 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5539 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5540 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5542 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5543 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5544 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5545 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5546 available Scheme format implementations.
5548 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5549 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5550 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5551 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5552 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5553 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5554 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5555 output is to the current error port if available by the
5556 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5559 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5560 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5561 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5562 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5563 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5564 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5565 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5566 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5568 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5569 be executed at a time.
5572 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5574 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5575 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5576 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5578 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5579 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5580 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5581 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5582 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5583 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5584 general form of a directive is:
5586 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5588 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5590 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5592 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5593 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5594 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5597 Any (print as `display' does).
5601 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5605 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5609 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5615 print number sign always.
5618 print comma separated.
5620 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5626 print number sign always.
5629 print comma separated.
5631 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5637 print number sign always.
5640 print comma separated.
5642 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5648 print number sign always.
5651 print comma separated.
5653 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5658 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5662 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5665 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5668 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5671 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5676 prints `y' and `ies'.
5679 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5682 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5687 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5691 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5694 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5695 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5697 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5700 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5701 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5703 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5706 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5708 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5710 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5713 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5715 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5717 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5720 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5723 The sign appears before the padding.
5731 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5733 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5738 print N page separators.
5748 newline is ignored, white space left.
5751 newline is left, white space ignored.
5756 relative tabulation.
5762 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5764 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5767 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5769 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5772 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5775 converts by `string-upcase'.
5778 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5780 jumps N arguments forward.
5783 jumps 1 argument backward.
5786 jumps N arguments backward.
5789 jumps to the 0th argument.
5792 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5794 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5795 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5797 take argument from N.
5800 true test conditional.
5803 if-else-then conditional.
5809 default clause follows.
5812 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5814 at most N iterations.
5817 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5820 args from the rest of arguments.
5823 args from the rest args (lists).
5834 aborts if N <= M <= K
5836 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5839 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5842 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5848 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5850 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5852 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5853 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5854 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5855 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5856 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5857 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5861 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5865 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5871 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5874 Print a `#\space' character
5876 print N `#\space' characters.
5879 Print a `#\tab' character
5881 print N `#\tab' characters.
5884 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5885 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5886 must be a positive decimal number.
5889 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5890 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5891 be processed by `read'.
5894 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5895 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5896 be processed by `read'.
5899 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5902 prints format version.
5905 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5906 and format it accordingly.
5908 *** Configuration Variables
5910 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5911 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5912 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5913 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5916 format:symbol-case-conv
5917 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
5918 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
5919 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
5920 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
5921 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
5923 format:iobj-case-conv
5924 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
5925 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
5928 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
5931 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
5937 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
5938 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
5939 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
5940 `format' padding style.
5943 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
5944 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
5945 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
5946 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
5950 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
5951 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
5952 directive parameters or modifiers)).
5955 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
5956 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
5957 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
5958 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
5959 parameters or modifiers)).
5962 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
5964 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
5966 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
5967 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
5969 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
5970 string-downcase! functions.
5972 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
5973 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
5975 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
5978 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
5981 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
5982 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
5984 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
5986 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
5987 the symbol had be read by `read'.
5989 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
5990 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
5991 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
5992 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
5993 would if STRING were input.
5995 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
5997 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
5998 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
5999 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6000 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6003 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6005 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6006 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6009 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6011 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6012 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6014 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6015 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6017 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6018 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6019 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6020 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6022 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6023 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6025 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6026 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6027 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6029 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6030 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6032 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6033 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6034 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6035 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6036 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6038 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6039 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6040 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6041 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6042 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6043 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6045 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6046 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6047 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6050 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6051 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6052 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6053 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6054 the following grammar:
6055 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6056 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6057 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6058 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6059 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6060 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6061 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6062 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6063 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6064 last option in its combination)
6066 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6067 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6068 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6069 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6071 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6072 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6073 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6075 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6076 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6077 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6079 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6080 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6081 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6082 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6083 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6084 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6085 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6086 ordinary argument strings.
6088 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6089 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6090 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6091 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6093 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6094 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6096 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6097 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6098 - a required option is omitted
6099 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6100 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6101 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6102 - an option predicate fails
6107 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6110 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6111 (verbose (required? #f)
6114 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6115 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6116 (predicate ,string?))))
6118 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6119 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6121 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6122 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6123 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6124 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6127 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6129 It will be removed in a few releases.
6131 ** New syntax: lambda*
6132 ** New syntax: define*
6133 ** New syntax: define*-public
6134 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6135 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6136 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6138 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6139 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6140 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6141 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6142 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6144 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6145 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6146 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6148 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6150 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6151 and examples for `lambda*':
6154 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6156 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6157 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6158 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6159 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6160 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6161 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6162 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6163 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6165 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6167 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6168 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6169 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6170 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6172 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6173 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6174 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6175 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6176 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6177 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6178 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6179 and until the procedure is called.
6181 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6183 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6184 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6185 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6186 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6187 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6188 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6189 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6190 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6191 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6192 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6194 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6195 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6196 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6197 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6200 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6202 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6203 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6204 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6205 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6207 ** New syntax: and-let*
6208 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6210 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6211 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6212 (<variable> <expression>)
6215 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6216 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6217 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6220 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6221 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6222 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6223 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6224 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6225 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6226 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6228 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6229 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6230 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6231 shadow earlier bindings.
6233 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6235 ** New sorting functions
6237 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6238 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6239 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6240 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6242 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6243 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6246 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6247 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6248 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6250 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6251 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6252 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6253 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6255 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6256 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6257 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6258 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6259 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6262 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6263 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6264 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6265 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6266 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6267 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6269 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6270 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6271 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6273 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6274 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6275 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6278 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6279 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6280 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6282 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6283 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6285 ** New built-in random number support
6287 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6288 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6289 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6290 returned have a uniform distribution.
6292 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6293 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6294 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6295 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6296 effect of the `random' operation.
6298 *** New variable: *random-state*
6299 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6300 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6301 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6302 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6303 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6306 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6307 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6308 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6309 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6310 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6312 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6313 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6314 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6315 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6316 initialized using SEED.
6318 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6319 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6320 range between 0 and 1.
6322 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6323 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6324 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6325 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6326 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6327 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6328 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6330 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6331 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6332 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6333 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6334 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6335 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6337 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6338 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6339 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6340 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6342 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6343 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6344 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6345 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6347 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6348 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6349 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6351 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6353 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6356 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6357 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6360 ** New function: make-guardian
6361 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6362 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6363 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6364 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6365 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6367 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6368 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6369 one object if at all.
6371 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6372 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6373 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6375 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6376 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6377 read again in last-in first-out order.
6379 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6380 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6382 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6384 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6385 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6386 file position is used.
6388 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6389 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6390 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6392 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6393 redefined using seek.
6395 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6396 size is not supplied.
6398 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6399 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6401 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6402 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6404 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6406 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6407 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6408 and returns the contents as a single string.
6410 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6411 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6412 lists in serial order.
6414 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6415 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6416 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6418 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6419 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6420 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6421 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6423 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6424 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6425 and #f if an error occured.
6427 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6429 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6430 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6431 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6432 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6434 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6436 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6439 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6441 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6444 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6448 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6449 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6451 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6452 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6456 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6458 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6460 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6461 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6463 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6465 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6466 might change when we get the new module system.
6468 ** The smob interface
6470 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6471 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6473 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6475 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6479 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6480 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6481 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6482 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6483 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6484 will be freed by the default free function.
6486 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6487 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6488 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6489 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6491 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6492 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6493 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6494 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6496 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6498 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6499 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6503 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6504 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6505 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6507 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6508 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6509 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6510 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6512 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6513 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6514 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6516 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6517 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6518 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6519 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6521 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6522 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6523 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6525 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6529 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6531 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6532 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6533 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6535 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6536 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6537 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6539 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6540 a string port's buffer.
6542 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6543 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6544 function pointers which together define the current random number
6545 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6546 number library functions.
6548 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6551 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6552 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6555 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6556 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6558 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6559 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6561 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6562 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6565 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6566 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6567 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6568 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6570 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6571 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6572 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6573 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6574 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6575 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6576 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6578 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6579 by libguile and the application.
6581 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6582 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6583 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6584 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6586 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6587 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6589 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6590 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6591 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6593 ** Random number library functions
6594 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6595 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6596 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6598 The default random state is stored in:
6600 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6601 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6602 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6607 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6609 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6610 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6611 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6612 isn't a random state.
6614 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6615 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6617 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6618 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6619 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6620 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6622 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6623 Return 32 random bits.
6625 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6626 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6628 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6629 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6631 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6632 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6634 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6635 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6637 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6638 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6639 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6643 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6645 * Changes to the distribution
6647 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6648 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6649 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6652 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6653 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6654 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6656 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6657 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6658 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6659 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6662 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6663 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6664 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6666 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6668 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6670 *** Function: batch-mode?
6672 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6675 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6677 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6678 case has not been implemented.
6680 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6681 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6682 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6685 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6686 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6688 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6690 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6692 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6694 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6695 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6698 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6699 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6700 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6701 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6704 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6706 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6707 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6708 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6709 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6710 find those libraries.
6712 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6713 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6716 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6718 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6719 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6720 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6721 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6723 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6724 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6725 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6729 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6731 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6732 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6733 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6736 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6737 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6738 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6739 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6741 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6742 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6745 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6746 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6747 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6748 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6749 compiler where to find the libraries.
6751 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6752 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6753 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6755 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6756 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6757 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6758 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6759 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6763 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6765 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6766 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6767 internationalization support.
6769 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6770 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6771 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6772 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6773 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6775 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6776 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6777 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6778 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6779 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6781 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6782 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6783 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6784 any GNU mirror site.
6786 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6788 ** New function: add-history STRING
6789 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6790 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6791 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6793 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6795 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6796 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6797 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6800 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6801 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6802 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6804 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6806 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6809 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6810 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6813 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6814 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6815 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6816 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6817 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6818 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6820 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6821 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6822 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6823 of the form mentioned above.
6825 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6826 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6827 returned in the special `rest' list.
6829 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6830 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6832 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6834 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6836 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6838 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6839 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6840 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6841 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6842 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6843 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6844 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6845 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6848 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6850 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6852 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6853 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6856 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6857 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6858 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6862 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6863 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6864 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6865 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6866 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6867 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6868 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6869 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6872 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6874 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6875 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6876 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6878 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6880 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6881 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6883 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6884 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6885 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6887 Why do we have this function?
6888 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6889 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6890 primitive, and display it differently, and
6891 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6892 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6895 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6896 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6899 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6900 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6901 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6902 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6904 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6905 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6908 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6909 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6911 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6913 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6914 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6915 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6916 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6917 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
6918 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
6919 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
6922 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
6924 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
6925 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
6927 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
6928 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
6929 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
6930 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
6931 properly continue the print chain.
6933 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
6934 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
6935 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
6936 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
6937 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
6938 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
6939 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
6940 print-state, it is simply ignored.
6942 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
6943 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
6944 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
6945 safest to not check for these pairs.
6947 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
6948 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
6949 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
6950 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
6952 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
6954 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
6955 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
6957 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
6959 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
6961 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
6962 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
6963 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
6965 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
6966 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
6967 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
6969 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
6970 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
6971 the following functions and macros:
6973 Function: make-fluid
6975 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
6976 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
6977 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
6978 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
6979 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
6981 Function: fluid? OBJ
6983 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
6985 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
6986 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
6988 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
6989 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
6991 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
6993 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
6994 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
6995 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
6996 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
6997 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
6998 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
6999 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7001 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7003 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7004 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7005 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7006 should evaluate to a fluid.
7008 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7010 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7011 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7012 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7013 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7014 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7016 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7019 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7021 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7023 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7025 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7028 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7029 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7030 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7031 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7032 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7035 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7036 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7037 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7039 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7040 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7041 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7043 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7044 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7045 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7046 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7048 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7049 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7050 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7051 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7053 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7054 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7055 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7056 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7058 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7059 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7060 their revealed counts set to zero.
7062 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7063 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7065 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7066 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7068 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7069 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7071 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7072 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7073 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7075 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7076 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7077 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7079 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7080 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7081 default environment inherited by child processes.
7083 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7084 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7085 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7087 The return value is unspecified.
7089 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7090 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7091 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7092 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7093 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7095 The return value is unspecified.
7097 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7098 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7106 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7107 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7110 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7113 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7114 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7115 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7117 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7118 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7119 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7120 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7123 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7124 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7126 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7127 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7128 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7129 the `environ' procedure.
7131 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7132 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7135 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7136 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7138 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7139 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7140 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7141 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7143 *** procedure: times
7144 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7145 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7146 return a selected component:
7149 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7153 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7156 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7160 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7161 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7165 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7166 terminated child processes.
7168 ** Removed: list-length
7169 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7170 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7172 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7174 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7176 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7178 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7179 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7180 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7181 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7183 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7184 extra complexity it introduces.
7186 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7187 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7189 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7190 variable to any non-empty value.
7192 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7193 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7195 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7197 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7198 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7200 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7202 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7203 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7205 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7207 ** vector handling routines
7209 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7210 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7211 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7212 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7213 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7215 ** pair and list routines
7217 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7220 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7222 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7225 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7227 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7229 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7230 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7231 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7232 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7233 site-specific initialization code.
7235 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7236 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7237 initialization processes.
7239 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7240 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7241 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7242 initialized properly.
7244 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7245 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7246 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7248 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7249 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7250 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7251 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7252 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7254 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7256 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7257 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7258 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7259 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7260 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7262 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7263 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7264 which look like this:
7267 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7269 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7270 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7273 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7274 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7277 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7279 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7280 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7281 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7283 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7284 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7285 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7286 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7287 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7289 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7290 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7292 int (*free) (SCM port);
7293 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7294 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7295 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7299 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7300 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7301 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7303 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7306 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7307 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7308 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7310 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7311 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7312 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7315 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7319 struct timeval *timeout);
7321 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7322 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7323 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7324 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7325 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7326 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7328 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7329 scm_catch_body_t body,
7331 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7334 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7335 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7336 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7337 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7338 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7339 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7341 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7343 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7346 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7347 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7348 spawning threads from application C code.
7350 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7351 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7352 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7353 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7354 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7355 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7357 ** Removed functions:
7359 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7360 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7362 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7364 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7365 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7367 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7369 ** mbstrings are now removed
7371 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7372 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7374 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7376 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7377 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7378 their new names and arguments:
7380 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7381 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7382 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7383 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7386 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7388 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7390 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7393 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7395 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7396 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7397 pass a #f arg to catch.
7399 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7401 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7402 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7405 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7406 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7407 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7408 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7409 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7410 reclaim its storage.
7412 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7413 worrying that some other function you call will call
7414 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7415 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7416 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7417 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7420 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7422 * Changes to the distribution
7424 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7425 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7428 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7429 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7431 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7432 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7434 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7436 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7437 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7438 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7440 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7442 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7443 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7444 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7445 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7446 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7447 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7449 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7450 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7451 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7454 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7455 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7456 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7457 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7459 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7460 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7461 libraries to your link command:
7463 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7464 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7465 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7466 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7468 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7469 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7470 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7472 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7474 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7475 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7478 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7480 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7481 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7482 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7483 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7484 searched is system dependent.
7486 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7488 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7490 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7492 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7493 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7495 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7497 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7498 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7499 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7500 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7501 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7504 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7506 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7507 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7508 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7509 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7510 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7512 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7514 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7515 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7517 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7519 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7520 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7521 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7524 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7526 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7527 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7528 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7529 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7531 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7532 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7534 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7536 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7537 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7539 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7541 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7542 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7550 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7552 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7553 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7554 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7555 a more informative way.
7557 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7558 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7559 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7560 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7561 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7562 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7564 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7565 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7568 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7569 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7570 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7573 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7574 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7575 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7576 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7577 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7578 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7580 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7581 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7582 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7583 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7586 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7587 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7588 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7589 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7590 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7591 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7593 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7594 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7595 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7596 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7597 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7599 *** regexp functions
7601 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7602 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7603 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7605 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7606 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7607 with SCSH regular expressions.
7609 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7610 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7611 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7612 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7614 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7615 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7616 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7617 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7619 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7620 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7621 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7622 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7623 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7624 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7626 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7627 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7628 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7629 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7630 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7632 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7634 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7635 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7636 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7637 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7639 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7640 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7641 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7643 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7644 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7646 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7649 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7650 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7651 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7653 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7654 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7655 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7657 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7658 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7659 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7660 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7661 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7664 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7666 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7667 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7668 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7669 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7670 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7671 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7673 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7674 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7675 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7677 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7678 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7681 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7682 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7684 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7685 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7686 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7687 may be one of the following arguments:
7689 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7691 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7693 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7694 the regexp match is written.
7696 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7697 following the regexp match is written.
7699 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7700 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7703 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7704 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7705 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7706 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7707 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7708 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7710 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7713 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7714 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7715 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7716 written out to PORT.
7718 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7719 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7720 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7721 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7722 will return after processing a single match.
7724 *** Match Structures
7726 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7727 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7728 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7729 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7730 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7731 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7734 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7735 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7736 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7737 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7738 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7740 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7741 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7742 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7744 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7745 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7746 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7747 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7748 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7750 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7751 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7753 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7754 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7756 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7757 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7759 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7760 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7762 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7763 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7764 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7765 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7767 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7768 Return the original TARGET string.
7770 *** Backslash Escapes
7772 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7773 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7774 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7775 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7776 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7777 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7779 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7780 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7781 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7782 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7783 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7784 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7785 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7786 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7788 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7789 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7790 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7791 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7792 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7793 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7794 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7796 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7797 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7798 return the resulting string.
7800 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7801 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7802 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7803 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7804 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7805 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7806 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7807 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7808 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7809 translated to the single character `*'.
7811 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7812 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7813 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7814 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7815 consecutive backslashes:
7817 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7819 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7820 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7821 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7823 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7824 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7825 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7826 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7827 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7828 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7830 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7832 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7833 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7834 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7835 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7836 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7837 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7838 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7839 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7840 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7841 cumbersome escape syntax.
7843 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7845 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7847 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7849 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7852 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7854 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7856 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7859 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7860 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7861 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7862 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7863 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7865 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7866 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7867 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7868 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7869 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7870 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7871 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7874 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7875 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7876 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7879 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7880 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7882 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7883 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7884 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7885 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7886 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7887 installed, you can say:
7889 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7892 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7894 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7895 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7896 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7897 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7898 new dynamic roots and threads.
7901 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7903 * Changes to the distribution.
7905 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7907 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7908 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7909 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7910 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7911 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7912 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7913 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7914 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7916 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
7919 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
7920 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
7925 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7927 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
7928 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
7930 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
7931 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
7932 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
7933 the (command-line) function.
7934 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
7935 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
7936 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
7938 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
7939 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
7940 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
7941 command line arguments
7942 -ds do -s script at this point
7943 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
7944 -h, --help display this help and exit
7945 -v, --version display version information and exit
7946 \ read arguments from following script lines
7948 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
7949 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
7951 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7954 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7958 (main (command-line))
7960 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
7962 ekko a speckled gecko
7964 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
7965 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
7966 following list of command-line arguments:
7968 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
7970 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
7971 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
7972 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
7973 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
7974 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7976 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
7978 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
7980 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
7981 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
7984 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
7985 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
7986 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
7987 SCSH) for circumventing them.
7989 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
7990 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
7991 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
7992 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
7994 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
7998 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8002 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8004 ekko a speckled gecko
8006 Unix expands this into
8008 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8010 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8011 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8013 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8015 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8016 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8018 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8019 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8020 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8021 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8022 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8023 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8024 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8025 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8026 it only terminates the argument list.)
8027 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8028 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8029 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8030 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8031 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8032 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8033 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8034 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8036 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8038 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8039 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8040 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8041 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8042 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8044 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8045 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8046 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8048 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8050 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8051 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8052 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8053 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8056 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8057 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8058 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8060 * Changes to Scheme functions
8062 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8063 and disabled by default.
8065 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8066 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8067 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8068 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8070 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8072 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8074 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8075 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8077 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8078 (read-set! keywords #f)
8080 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8081 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8082 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8085 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8086 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8087 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8090 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8091 support for Scheme functions.
8093 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8094 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8095 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8096 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8099 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8100 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8101 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8104 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8105 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8106 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8109 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8110 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8111 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8112 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8113 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8114 display the result as a prompt.
8115 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8117 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8118 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8119 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8122 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8123 procedure of zero arguments.
8125 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8126 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8127 argument is bound in the current module.
8129 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8130 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8131 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8132 public bindings into the current module.
8134 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8135 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8137 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8138 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8140 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8141 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8143 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8144 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8146 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8147 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8149 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8150 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8151 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8152 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8153 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8155 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8156 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8157 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8158 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8160 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8163 ** Changes to I/O functions
8165 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8166 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8167 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8169 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8170 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8171 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8173 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8174 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8176 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8177 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8178 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8179 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8181 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8183 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8184 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8186 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8187 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8188 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8189 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8190 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8193 'trim omit delimiter from result
8194 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8195 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8196 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8198 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8200 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8201 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8203 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8204 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8205 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8206 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8207 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8209 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8210 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8211 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8213 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8214 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8215 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8216 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8218 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8219 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8221 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8222 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8224 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8226 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8227 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8228 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8229 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8230 a delimiting character.
8231 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8233 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8234 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8235 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8236 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8237 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8238 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8240 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8241 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8243 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8244 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8245 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8247 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8248 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8249 the array to read and write.
8251 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8252 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8255 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8257 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8260 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8261 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8262 Values for COMMAND are:
8264 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8265 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8266 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8267 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8268 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8269 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8270 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8271 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8273 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8275 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8276 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8277 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8278 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8279 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8280 corresponding return set will be the same.
8282 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8285 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8286 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8287 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8288 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8289 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8290 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8291 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8292 special file being created.
8294 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8295 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8297 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8298 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8299 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8300 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8301 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8302 and originating address.
8304 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8305 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8306 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8308 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8311 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8312 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8315 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8316 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8317 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8318 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8319 this function returns #f.
8321 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8322 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8323 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8326 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8327 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8328 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8331 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8332 a valid STATUS value.
8334 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8336 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8337 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8339 Component Accessor Setter
8340 ========================= ============ ============
8341 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8342 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8343 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8344 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8345 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8346 year tm:year set-tm:year
8347 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8348 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8349 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8350 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8351 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8353 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8354 describing the host system:
8357 ============================================== ================
8358 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8359 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8360 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8361 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8362 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8364 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8365 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8366 system's user database:
8369 ====================== =================
8370 user name passwd:name
8371 user password passwd:passwd
8374 real name passwd:gecos
8375 home directory passwd:dir
8376 shell program passwd:shell
8378 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8379 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8380 system's group database:
8383 ======================= ============
8384 group name group:name
8385 group password group:passwd
8387 group members group:mem
8389 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8390 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8394 ========================= ===============
8395 official name of host hostent:name
8396 alias list hostent:aliases
8397 host address type hostent:addrtype
8398 length of address hostent:length
8399 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8401 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8402 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8406 ========================= ===============
8407 official name of net netent:name
8408 alias list netent:aliases
8409 net number type netent:addrtype
8410 net number netent:net
8412 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8413 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8417 ========================= ===============
8418 official protocol name protoent:name
8419 alias list protoent:aliases
8420 protocol number protoent:proto
8422 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8423 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8427 ========================= ===============
8428 official service name servent:name
8429 alias list servent:aliases
8430 port number servent:port
8431 protocol to use servent:proto
8433 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8434 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8437 ======================================== ===============
8438 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8439 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8440 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8441 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8443 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8444 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8445 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8447 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8448 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8450 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8451 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8453 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8454 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8456 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8458 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8460 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8461 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8462 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8464 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8465 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8466 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8467 return the remaining characters as a string.
8469 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8470 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8471 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8473 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8475 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8477 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8480 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8483 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8484 and returns the array
8486 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8487 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8488 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8490 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8492 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8493 symbol's value from C code:
8495 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8496 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8497 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8498 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8500 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8501 without assigning them a value.
8503 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8504 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8505 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8507 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8508 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8509 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8511 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8512 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8514 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8515 doesn't actually care about that.
8517 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8518 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8519 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8521 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8522 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8523 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8524 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8525 which we have just created and initialized.
8527 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8528 should one occur. We call it like this:
8529 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8531 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8532 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8533 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8534 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8535 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8536 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8539 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8540 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8541 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8542 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8543 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8544 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8545 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8548 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8549 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8550 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8551 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8552 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8555 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8556 scm_internal_catch, except:
8558 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8559 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8560 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8561 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8564 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8565 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8566 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8568 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8569 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8570 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8571 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8574 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8575 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8576 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8578 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8579 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8580 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8581 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8582 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8584 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8585 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8586 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8588 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8589 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8590 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8592 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8593 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8595 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8596 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8597 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8600 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8601 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8602 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8603 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8604 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8605 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8606 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8609 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8610 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8612 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8613 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8614 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8615 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8616 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8619 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8620 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8622 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8623 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8626 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8627 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8629 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8632 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8633 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8634 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8635 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8636 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8637 given the following arguments:
8639 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8641 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8643 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8645 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8648 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8649 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8650 command-line arguments.
8652 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8653 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8654 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8655 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8656 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8657 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8660 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8663 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8664 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8666 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8667 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8669 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8670 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8671 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8672 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8674 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8675 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8677 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8678 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8679 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8680 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8682 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8683 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8685 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8686 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8688 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8690 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8691 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8692 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8695 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8696 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8698 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8699 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8704 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8707 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8709 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8710 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8711 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8712 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8714 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8716 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8718 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8719 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8720 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8721 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8722 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8723 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8724 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8725 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8726 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8727 for more information.
8729 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8730 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8732 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8733 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8734 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8735 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8736 following two lines at the top of the file:
8738 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8741 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8742 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8743 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8745 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8747 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8749 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8752 (display (car args))
8753 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8755 (loop (cdr args)))))
8758 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8759 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8760 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8761 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8762 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8763 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8767 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8770 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8773 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8775 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8776 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8777 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8778 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8779 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8782 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8783 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8784 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8785 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8786 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8789 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8792 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8793 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8794 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8797 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8798 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8799 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8801 to see a backtrace, and
8802 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8803 to see them by default.
8807 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8809 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8811 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8812 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8815 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8816 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8817 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8818 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8821 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8822 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8823 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8824 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8825 functions which inspired them.
8827 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8828 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8832 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8834 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8836 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8837 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8840 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8841 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8842 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8844 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8845 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8846 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8847 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8848 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8850 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8852 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8853 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8854 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8857 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8860 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8862 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8863 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8864 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8865 above should serve their purposes.
8867 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8868 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8869 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8870 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8872 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8875 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8876 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8877 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8878 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8880 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8881 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8882 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8883 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8885 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8886 for the `read' function.
8889 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8890 to that of `integer?'.
8892 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8893 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8895 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8896 it simply returns the object's property list.
8898 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8899 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8900 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8901 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8903 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8905 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8908 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8910 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8911 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8913 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8915 void (*main_func) (),
8918 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
8919 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
8920 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
8921 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
8922 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
8924 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
8925 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
8926 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
8927 know which arguments have been processed.
8929 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
8930 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
8931 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
8932 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
8933 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
8935 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
8936 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
8937 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
8938 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
8939 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
8940 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
8941 people from making that mistake.
8943 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
8944 convenient ways to override these when desired.
8946 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
8948 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
8952 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
8955 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
8956 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
8957 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
8958 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
8961 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
8962 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
8963 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
8964 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
8967 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
8968 have been added to the Guile library.
8970 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
8971 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
8972 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
8975 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
8976 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
8977 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
8979 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
8980 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
8981 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
8982 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
8983 argument from the list.
8986 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
8989 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
8990 null-terminated string, and returns it.
8992 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
8993 to a Scheme port object.
8995 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
8996 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9001 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9003 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9004 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9005 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9006 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9007 code as a special datatype.
9009 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9010 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9011 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9012 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9013 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9016 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9017 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9018 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9019 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9020 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9022 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9025 Copyright information:
9027 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9029 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9030 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9031 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9032 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9034 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9035 of this document, or of portions of it,
9036 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9037 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9042 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"