1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the stable branch:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
25 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
26 At the moment it is being used to handle Guile's bignums.
28 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
30 Guile now has config.h and libguile/scmconfig.h. The former is not
31 installed and is private. The latter is installed and used by Guile's
32 public headers. config.h is generated by configure and autoheader,
33 and scmconfig.h is generated by a small C program, gen-scmconfig at
34 build time based in part on the contents of config.h.
36 Seen libguile/__scm.h and gen-scmconfig.c for more information.
38 Note too that nearly all public defines are now set to either 1 or 0
39 rather than being set to 1 or left undefined. See gen-scmconfig.c and
40 the GNU Coding Guidelines for the rationale. However, pre-existing
41 defines that were not renamed were not changed. i.e. GUILE_DEBUG is
42 still either 1 or undefined.
44 ** The INSTALL file is now the generic automake installed one.
46 Guile specific instructions can be found in the README.
48 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
50 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
51 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
52 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
53 so the current effective-version is "1.6". The effective version
54 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
55 items like the versioned share directory name
56 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.6.
58 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
59 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
60 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
61 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
62 with each micro release during a stable series.
64 ** Thread implementation has changed.
66 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
67 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
68 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
69 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
70 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
73 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
74 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
75 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
76 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
77 the GC. See the manual for details. [XXX - write this.]
79 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
80 in which case "null" threads are used.
82 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
84 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
85 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
86 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
87 in parallel to other sections.
89 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
90 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
91 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
92 serial section (including itself).
94 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
95 inner-most construct is in effect.
97 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
100 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
101 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
102 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
105 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
106 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
107 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
110 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
111 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
112 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
113 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
114 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
115 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
117 ** New module (srfi srfi-26)
119 This is an implementation of SRFI-26.
121 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
123 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
124 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
126 ** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
128 We now use a modified version of libltdl that allows us to make
129 improvements to it without having to rely on libtool releases.
131 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
133 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
135 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
136 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
138 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
140 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
141 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
143 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
145 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
146 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
149 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
152 (define-module (demo)
156 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
159 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
161 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
163 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
166 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
168 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
169 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
170 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
173 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
174 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
175 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
178 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
180 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
181 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
182 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
185 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
188 ** Checking for duplicate bindings in module system
190 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
193 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more duplicates
194 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
202 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
203 has been detected is to
205 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
206 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
207 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
210 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
213 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
215 to your .guile init file.
217 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
219 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
221 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
222 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
223 tried until a binding is selected.
225 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
227 check report an error for bindings with a common name
228 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
229 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
230 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
231 and accept the override
232 first select the first encountered binding (override)
233 last select the last encountered binding (override)
235 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
237 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
238 into an <extended-generic>
239 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
241 The default duplicates handler is:
243 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
245 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
246 behavior) can be installed with:
248 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
250 ** New define-module option: :replace
252 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
255 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
256 for the core binding `format'.
258 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
260 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
261 a prefix to all imported bindings.
264 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
266 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
269 ** Merging generic functions
271 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
272 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
275 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
276 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
277 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
279 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
280 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
281 generic functions sharing a common name:
283 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
284 :use-module (oop goops)
287 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
288 :use-module (oop goops)
291 (define-module (my-module)
292 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
293 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
294 :duplicates merge-generics)
296 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
299 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
300 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
301 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
304 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
305 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
306 functions, extending its ancestors.
308 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
309 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
310 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
312 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
313 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
314 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
315 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
318 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
319 adding it to the ancestor.
321 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
322 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
324 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
326 ** New function: effective-version
328 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
329 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
330 to the distribution" above.
332 ** Futures: future, make-future, future-ref
334 Futures are like promises, but begun immediately in a new thread. See
335 the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
337 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
339 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
340 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
342 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
344 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
345 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
346 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
347 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
350 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
351 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
352 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
353 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
355 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
356 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
359 ** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
361 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
363 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
365 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
366 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
368 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
370 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
371 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
374 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
376 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
378 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
380 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
381 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
382 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
385 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
386 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
387 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
390 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
391 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
393 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
395 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
396 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
399 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
400 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
402 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
403 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
404 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
405 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
406 level for the current thread.
408 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
410 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
412 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
413 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
416 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
418 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
420 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
423 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
425 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
428 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
429 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
430 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
432 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
433 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
434 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
435 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
446 ERROR: Numerical overflow
448 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
451 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
453 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
454 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
455 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
466 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
468 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
469 them is also done exactly, of course:
474 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
477 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
478 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
480 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
482 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
483 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
484 equal to a floating point number. For example:
486 (inexact->exact 1.234)
487 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
489 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
491 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
494 ** New function 'rationalize'.
496 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
497 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
499 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
502 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
503 result when both its arguments are exact.
505 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
507 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
508 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
509 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
511 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
513 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
514 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
515 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
517 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
520 ** pretty-print has more options.
522 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
523 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
524 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
526 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
528 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
529 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
530 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
532 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
534 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
535 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
537 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
539 Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
540 to use r5rs macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done
541 during evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
543 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
545 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
546 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
547 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
548 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
549 without the soft port blocking.
551 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
553 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
554 chapter in the reference manual.
556 ** Deprecated: undefine
558 There is no replacement for undefine.
560 ** call-with-output-string doesn't segv on closed port
562 Previously call-with-output-string would give a segmentation fault if
563 the string port was closed by the called function. An exception is
566 ** (ice-9 popen) duplicate pipe fd fix
568 open-pipe, open-input-pipe and open-output-pipe left an extra copy of
569 their pipe file descriptor in the child, which was normally harmless,
570 but it can prevent the parent seeing eof or a broken pipe immediately
571 and has now been fixed.
573 ** source-properties and set-source-properties! fix
575 Properties set with set-source-properties! can now be read back
576 correctly with source-properties.
580 delete and delete! now call the "=" procedure with arguments in the
581 order described by the SRFI-1 specification
583 list-copy now accepts improper lists, per the specification.
587 Larger values in 64-bit vectors should print correctly now.
591 date-week-number now correctly respects the requested day of week
594 * Changes to the C interface
596 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
598 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which return a pointer
599 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
601 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
602 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
603 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
604 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
606 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
608 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
609 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
610 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
612 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
613 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
615 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
616 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
617 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
618 smob words. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
620 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and reentries.
622 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
623 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
624 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
625 prevent a potential memory leak:
634 mem = scm_malloc (100);
635 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
637 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
638 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless. */
644 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
645 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
649 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
651 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
653 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
654 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
655 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
657 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
659 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
660 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
662 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
664 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
665 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
667 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
669 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
670 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
671 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
673 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
675 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
676 private or renamed with a more suitable public name. See below for
677 the ones which have been renamed.
679 ** HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H have been removed from public use.
681 HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H removed from public use. These are
682 no longer needed since the older uses of stdint.h and inttypes.h are
683 now handled by configure.in and gen-scmconfig.c.
685 ** USE_DLL_IMPORT is no longer defined publically.
687 gen-scmconfig now uses it to decide what contents to place in the
688 public scmconfig.h header without adding the USE_DLL_IMPORT itself.
690 ** HAVE_LIMITS_H has been removed from public use.
692 gen-scmconfig now just uses HAVE_LIMITS_H to decide whether or not to
693 add a limits.h include in scmconfig.h.
695 ** time.h, sys/time.h, etc. #ifdefery has been removed from public headers.
697 gen-scmconfig now just uses the same logic to decide what time related
698 #includes to add to scmconfig.h.
700 ** HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC has been removed from public use.
702 scmconfig.h now just defines scm_t_timespec.
704 ** HAVE_PTRDIFF has been removed from public use and Guile doesn't
707 Guile now publically defines scm_t_ptrdiff and
708 SCM_SIZEOF_SCM_T_PTRDIFF in scmconfig.h, and all occurrences of
709 ptrdiff_t have been replaced with scm_t_ptrdiff.
711 Guile defines its own type this rather than just relying on ptrdiff_t
712 and SCM_SIZEOF_PTRDIFF_T because Guile actually typedefs long to
713 scm_t_ptrdiff when ptrdiff_t isn't available. A public "typedef long
714 ptrdiff_t" could conflict with other headers.
716 ** HAVE_UINTPTR_T and HAVE_UINTPTR_T have been removed from public use.
718 They are replaced by public definitions of SCM_SIZEOF_UINTPTR_T and
719 SCM_SIZEOF_INTPTR_T. These are defined to 0 if the corresponding type
722 ** The public #define STDC_HEADERS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_STDC_HEADERS.
724 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
726 ** The public #define HAVE_SYS_SELECT has been renamed to
727 SCM_HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H.
729 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
731 ** The public #define HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H has been renamed to
732 SCM_HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H.
734 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
736 ** The public #define HAVE_IEEEFP_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_IEEEFP_H.
738 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
740 ** The public #define HAVE_NAN_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_NAN_H.
742 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
744 ** The public #define HAVE_WINSOCK2_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_WINSOCK2_H.
746 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
748 ** The public #define HAVE_ARRAYS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_ARRAYS.
750 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
752 ** The public #define STACK_GROWS_UP has been renamed to SCM_STACK_GROWS_UP.
754 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
756 ** The public #define USE_PTHREAD_THREADS has been renamed to
757 SCM_USE_PTHREAD_THREADS.
759 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
761 ** The public #define USE_NULL_THREADS has been renamed to
762 SCM_USE_NULL_THREADS.
764 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
766 ** The public #define USE_COOP_THREADS has been renamed to
767 SCM_USE_COOP_THREADS.
769 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
771 ** SCM_C_INLINE is publically defined if possible.
773 If the platform has a way to define inline functions, SCM_C_INLINE
774 will be defined to that text. Otherwise it will be undefined. This
775 is a little bit different than autoconf's normal handling of the
776 inline define via AC_C_INLINE.
778 ** Guile now publically defines some basic type infrastructure.
783 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_CHAR
785 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_SHORT
787 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG
789 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_INT
790 SCM_SIZEOF_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
791 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
800 Guile always defines these to 0 or 1
805 and when either of these are defined to 1, also defines
816 ** The function scm_unmemocopy now expects a sequence of body forms
818 Formerly, scm_unmemocopy would have accepted both, a single expression and a
819 sequence of body forms for unmemoization. Now, it only accepts only a
820 sequence of body forms, which was the normal way of using it. Passing it a
821 single expression won't work any more.
823 ** The macro SCM_IFLAGP now only returns true for flags
825 User code should never have used this macro anyway. And, you should not use
826 it in the future either. Thus, the following explanation is just for the
827 impropable case that your code actually made use of this macro, and that you
828 are willing to depend on internals which will probably change in the near
831 Formerly, SCM_IFLAGP also returned true for evaluator bytecodes created with
832 SCM_MAKSPCSYM (short instructions) and evaluator bytecodes created with
833 SCM_MAKISYM (short instructions). Now, SCM_IFLAG only returns true for
834 Guile's special constants created with SCM_MAKIFLAG. To achieve the old
835 behaviour, instead of
839 you would have to write
841 (SCM_ISYMP(x) || SCM_IFLAGP(x))
843 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
845 This macro is not intended for public use. However, if you allocated types
846 with tc16 type codes in a way that you would have needed this macro, you are
847 expected to have a deep knowledge of Guile's type system. Thus, you should
848 know how to replace this macro.
850 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
852 Use SCM_INEXACTP instead.
854 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
856 Use SCM_REALP instead.
858 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
860 Use SCM_COMPLEXP instead.
862 ** The preprocessor define USE_THREADS has been deprecated.
864 Going forward, assume that the thread API is always present.
866 ** The preprocessor define GUILE_ISELECT has been deprecated.
868 Going forward, assume that scm_internal_select is always present.
870 ** The preprocessor define READER_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
872 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
873 READER_EXTENSIONS are always present.
875 ** The preprocessor define DEBUG_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
877 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
878 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS are always present.
880 ** The preprocessor define DYNAMIC_LINKING has been deprecated.
882 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
883 DYNAMIC_LINKING are always present.
885 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
887 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
888 programs. (Do not use.)
890 ** New function: scm_effective_version
892 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
893 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
894 to the distribution" above.
896 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
898 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
899 arguments are now passed directly:
901 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
903 This is an incompatible change.
905 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
907 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
908 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
909 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
911 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
912 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
914 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
916 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
918 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
919 function in the init section.
921 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
923 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
925 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
927 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
928 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
929 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
931 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
933 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
934 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
935 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
936 stays roughly constant.
938 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
939 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
940 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
941 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
942 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
945 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
946 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
947 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
948 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
950 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
952 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
954 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
956 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
957 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
958 initializes a new cell (see below).
960 ** New functions for memory management
962 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
963 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
964 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
965 cause aborts in long running programs.
967 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
968 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
970 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
971 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
972 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
973 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
974 details and for upgrading instructions.
976 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
977 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
978 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
980 ** New function: scm_str2string
982 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
985 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
987 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
988 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
989 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
990 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
991 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
993 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
994 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
995 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
997 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
998 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1000 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1002 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
1003 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
1004 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
1005 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1007 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1009 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1012 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1014 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1016 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1018 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or, probably better, to use r5rs
1019 macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done during
1020 evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
1022 ** Removed from scm_root_state: def_inp, def_outp, def_errp, together
1023 with corresponding macros scm_def_inp, scm_def_outp and scm_def_errp.
1024 These were undocumented and unused copies of the standard ports at the
1025 time that Guile was initialised. Normally the current ports should be
1026 used instead, obtained from scm_current_input_port () etc. If an
1027 application needs to retain earlier ports, it should save them in a
1028 gc-protected location.
1030 ** Removed compile time option MEMOIZE_LOCALS
1032 Now, caching of local variable positions during memoization is mandatory.
1033 However, the option to disable the caching has most probably not been used
1036 ** Removed compile time option SCM_RECKLESS
1038 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
1039 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
1041 ** Removed compile time option SCM_CAUTIOUS
1043 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
1044 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
1046 ** Deprecated configure flags USE_THREADS and GUILE_ISELECT
1048 Previously, when the C preprocessor macro USE_THREADS was defined,
1049 libguile included a thread API. This API is now always included, even
1050 when threads are not really supported. Thus, you don't need to test
1053 Analogously, GUILE_ISELECT was defined when the function
1054 scm_internal_select was provided by Guile. This function is now
1055 always defined, and GUILE_ISELECT with it.
1057 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1059 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1060 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1062 ** Deprecated definitions of error strings: scm_s_expression, scm_s_test,
1063 scm_s_body, scm_s_bindings, scm_s_variable, scm_s_clauses, scm_s_formals
1065 These error message strings were used to issue syntax error messages by
1066 guile's evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1068 ** Deprecated helper macros for evaluation and application: SCM_EVALIM2,
1069 SCM_EVALIM, SCM_XEVAL, SCM_XEVALCAR
1071 These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
1072 that they have been used by user code.
1074 ** Deprecated helper functions for evaluation and application:
1075 scm_m_expand_body, scm_macroexp
1077 These functions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1078 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1080 ** Deprecated functions and variables for evaluation and application:
1081 scm_ceval, scm_deval and scm_ceval_ptr
1083 These functions and variables were used in the implementation of the
1084 evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code. If you have
1085 used these functions, switch to scm_eval or scm_eval_x.
1087 ** Deprecated functions for unmemoization: scm_unmemocar
1089 ** Deprecated definitions for iloc and isym handling
1091 SCM_ILOC00, SCM_IDINC, SCM_IDSTMSK, SCM_IFRINC, SCM_ICDR, SCM_IFRAME,
1092 SCM_IDIST, SCM_ICDRP, SCM_ISYMNUM, SCM_ISYMCHARS, scm_isymnames.
1094 These definitions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1095 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1097 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify,
1098 scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify,
1099 scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify, scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell,
1100 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH,
1101 SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY,
1102 SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
1103 scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL,
1104 SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL,
1105 SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS,
1106 scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var, *top-level-lookup-closure*,
1107 scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, scm_eval2,
1108 root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP,
1109 scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring,
1110 sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig,
1111 scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big,
1112 scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, SCM_SETCHARS,
1113 SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
1114 SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS,
1115 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern,
1116 scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1117 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1118 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1119 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1120 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1121 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1122 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1123 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1124 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1125 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1126 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1127 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable
1129 ** Deprecated definitions for debugging: scm_debug_mode, SCM_DEBUGGINGP
1131 These functions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1132 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1134 ** Removed macro SCM_MAKSPCSYM
1136 This macro was used for defining byte codes of the evaluator. It is almost
1137 impossible that user code has used this macro.
1140 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1142 * Changes to the distribution
1144 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1146 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1148 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1149 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1150 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1151 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1152 indicate major changes in Guile.
1154 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1155 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1156 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1157 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1159 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1160 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1161 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1162 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1163 micro version number.
1165 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1167 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1169 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1170 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1172 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1174 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1175 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1176 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1178 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1180 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1181 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1182 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1185 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1187 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1190 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1192 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1193 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1195 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1197 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1198 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1201 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1203 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1206 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1209 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1211 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1213 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1214 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1215 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1217 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1219 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1221 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1224 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1226 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1228 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1230 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1231 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1232 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1234 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1236 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1238 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1239 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1248 See README there for more info.
1250 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1251 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1254 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1256 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1258 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1260 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1261 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1262 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1264 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1266 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1267 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1268 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1270 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1271 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1273 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1276 (oop goops describe)
1278 (oop goops active-slot)
1279 (oop goops composite-slot)
1281 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1282 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1283 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1285 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1287 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1288 in the default environment:
1290 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1291 %read-line write-line
1293 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1294 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1296 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1298 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1301 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1302 can be used for similar functionality.
1304 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1306 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1307 it defines two procedures:
1309 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1311 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1312 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1313 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1316 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1318 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1319 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1320 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1321 write large strings.
1323 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1325 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1326 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1328 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1330 for complete documentation.
1332 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1334 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1335 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1336 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1337 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1339 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1340 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1344 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1345 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1346 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1349 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1352 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1353 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1355 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1356 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1359 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1362 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1364 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1366 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1368 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1370 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1371 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1372 Scheme programs easier.
1374 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1375 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1376 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1377 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1378 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1381 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1382 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1384 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1387 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1389 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1390 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1391 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1394 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1396 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1398 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1399 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1400 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1401 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1402 was also ASCII, for example.
1404 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1406 tag - no replacement.
1407 fseek - replaced by seek.
1408 list* - replaced by cons*.
1410 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1414 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1415 (define m (make-safe-module))
1416 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1417 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1418 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1420 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1422 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1423 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1424 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1426 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1428 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1429 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1430 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1431 from the issues related to the module system.
1433 *** New function: load-extension
1435 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1437 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1439 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1440 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1441 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1443 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1445 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1446 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1447 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1448 support dynamic linking).
1450 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1452 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1453 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1454 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1455 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1458 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1459 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1460 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1461 library and initialize it explicitely.
1463 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1464 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1466 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1468 (define-module (foo bar))
1470 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1472 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1474 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1475 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1477 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1478 (null-environment 5)
1479 (interaction-environment)
1485 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1487 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1488 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1489 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1490 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1492 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1493 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1494 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1495 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1496 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1497 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1498 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1499 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1500 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1501 one eval to the next.
1503 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1504 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1505 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1506 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1507 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1509 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1510 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1511 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1512 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1513 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1514 used in a lexical environment.
1516 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1517 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1518 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1519 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1520 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1521 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1523 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1525 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1526 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1527 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1528 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1529 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1531 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1532 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1533 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1535 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1536 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1538 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1539 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1540 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1542 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1543 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1545 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1546 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1547 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1548 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1551 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1552 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1553 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1554 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1556 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1557 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1558 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1560 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1561 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1562 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1563 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1564 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1566 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1568 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1569 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1570 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1572 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1573 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1574 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1576 See manual for more info.
1578 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1580 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1581 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1582 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1584 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1586 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1587 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1588 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1590 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1591 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1592 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1593 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1595 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1597 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1598 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1600 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1601 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1602 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1603 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1604 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1607 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1608 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1609 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1610 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1611 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1612 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1614 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1615 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1616 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1617 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1618 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1620 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1621 objects are usually permanent.
1623 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1624 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1626 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1628 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1629 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1632 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1636 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1641 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1643 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1644 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1645 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1646 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1648 ** New function `make-object-property'
1650 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1651 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1655 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1656 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1660 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1661 source properties eventually.
1663 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1665 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1666 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1667 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1669 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1670 will be removed in the next release.
1672 ** New define-module option: pure
1674 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1679 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1682 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1684 Export names NAME1 ...
1686 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1687 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1691 (define-module (foo)
1693 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1696 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1701 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1703 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1705 ** New function: port? X
1707 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1708 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1710 ** New function: file-port?
1712 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1714 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1716 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1717 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1718 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1719 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1720 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1722 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1724 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1725 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1726 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1727 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1728 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1731 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1733 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1734 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1735 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1736 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1739 ** New function: crypt password salt
1741 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1744 ** New function: chroot path
1746 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1748 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1750 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1753 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1755 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1757 ** New function: getpass prompt
1759 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1762 ** New function: flock file operation
1764 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1766 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1768 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1771 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1773 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1774 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1775 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1776 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1777 of the temporary file.
1779 ** New function: open-input-string string
1781 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1782 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1783 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1785 ** New function: open-output-string
1787 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1788 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1790 ** New function: get-output-string
1792 Return the contents of an output string port.
1794 ** New function: identity
1796 Return the argument.
1798 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1799 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1801 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1803 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1804 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1805 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1808 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1809 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1811 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1813 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1814 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1815 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1818 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1819 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1820 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1824 Use `identity' instead.
1830 ** Deprecated: return-it
1834 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1836 Use `string-length' instead.
1838 ** Deprecated: flags
1840 Use `logior' instead.
1842 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1844 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1845 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1846 port-for-each is more flexible.
1848 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1849 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1850 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1852 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1854 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1856 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1858 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1860 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1862 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1863 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1865 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1866 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1868 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1869 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1871 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1873 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1874 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1876 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1877 Use module system operations for all variables.
1879 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1881 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1884 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1886 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1887 The following bugs have been fixed:
1889 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1890 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1893 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1894 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1895 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1897 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1898 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1900 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1901 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1904 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1905 The expansion used to be like so:
1907 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1909 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1911 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1913 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1914 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1916 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1918 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1919 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1920 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1924 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1925 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1927 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1932 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1933 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1935 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1936 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1937 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1939 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1942 * Changes to the C interface
1944 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1946 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1947 with "_t". What a concept.
1949 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1951 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1953 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1957 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1958 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1960 *** C Functions removed
1962 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1963 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1964 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1965 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1966 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1967 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1968 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1970 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1972 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1974 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1976 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1978 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1979 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1981 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1983 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1986 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1988 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1990 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1992 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
1993 Evaluation" in the manual.
1995 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1997 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
1998 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2000 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2002 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2003 Constructors" in the manual.
2005 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2007 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2008 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2010 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2012 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2014 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2015 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2016 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2018 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2020 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2022 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2023 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2024 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2027 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2029 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2031 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2032 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2034 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2036 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2037 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2038 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2039 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2041 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2042 scm_primitive_property_ref
2043 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2044 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2046 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2047 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2049 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2051 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2052 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2053 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2054 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2056 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2058 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2059 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2060 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2061 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2062 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2063 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2064 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2066 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2067 scm_remember_upto_here
2069 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2071 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2073 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2074 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2076 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2078 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2080 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2082 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2084 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2086 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2087 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2088 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2089 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2090 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2091 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2093 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2095 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2097 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2098 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2099 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2101 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2103 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2104 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2105 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2107 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2109 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2110 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2113 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2116 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2117 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2120 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2122 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2124 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2126 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2128 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2130 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2132 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2133 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2134 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2135 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2136 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2137 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2138 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2139 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2140 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2141 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2142 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2143 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2144 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2145 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2146 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2148 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2149 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2150 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2151 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2152 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2153 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2154 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2155 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2156 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2157 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2158 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2159 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2160 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2161 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2162 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2163 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2164 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2165 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2166 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2167 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2168 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2169 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2170 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2171 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2172 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2173 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2174 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2175 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2176 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2178 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2180 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2182 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2183 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2185 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2187 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2189 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2191 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2193 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2195 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2197 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2199 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2201 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2204 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2205 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2207 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2209 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2211 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2213 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2215 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2217 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2219 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2221 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2224 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2226 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2228 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2230 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2231 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2233 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2234 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2236 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2238 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2239 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2240 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2242 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2244 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2246 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2247 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2249 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2250 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2251 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2252 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2254 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2255 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2256 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2258 Use the new ones from above instead.
2260 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2262 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2263 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2264 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2266 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2267 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2269 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2270 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2273 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2274 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2276 Use the new functions instead.
2278 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2281 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2283 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2285 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2288 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2290 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2293 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2295 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2298 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2299 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2300 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2302 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2304 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2305 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2307 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2308 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2309 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2310 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2313 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2315 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2316 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2317 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2318 inexact for an exact.
2320 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2321 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2322 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2325 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2326 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2327 accept an inexact argument.
2329 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2330 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2332 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2335 ** New number validation macros:
2336 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2340 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2342 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2343 scm_unprotect_object.
2345 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2347 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2349 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2352 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2354 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2358 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2360 * Changes to the distribution
2362 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2364 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2365 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2366 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2367 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2368 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2369 obtain these programs.
2370 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2371 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2373 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2374 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2375 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2376 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2377 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2379 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2380 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2381 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2382 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2386 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2389 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2390 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2391 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2392 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2394 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2396 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2398 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2399 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2401 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2402 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2404 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2405 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2407 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2408 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2409 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2410 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2412 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2414 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2418 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2419 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2421 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2423 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2424 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2426 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2427 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2428 number of objects of that kind.
2430 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2432 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2433 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2434 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2435 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2436 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2438 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2440 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2442 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2444 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2447 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2449 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2451 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2453 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2455 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2457 ** New command line option --debug
2459 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2461 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2463 ** New help facility
2465 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2466 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2467 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2468 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2469 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2470 (help) gives this text
2472 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2473 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2475 Examples: (help help)
2477 (help "output-string")
2479 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2481 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2483 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2484 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2487 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2488 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2489 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2492 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2493 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2494 use absolute filenames when possible.
2496 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2497 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2498 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2501 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2503 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2504 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2505 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2506 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2508 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2510 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2512 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2513 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2514 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2516 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2517 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2518 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2520 (read-enable 'positions)
2521 (debug-enable 'debug)
2523 ** Backtraces in scripts
2525 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2529 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2531 at the top of the script.
2533 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2534 The second enables backtraces.)
2536 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2538 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2539 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2540 substantially faster than before.
2542 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2543 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2545 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2546 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2548 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2550 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2551 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2552 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2554 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2555 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2556 when this hook is run in the future.
2558 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2559 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2561 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2563 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2564 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2567 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2568 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2569 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2571 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2572 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2574 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2575 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2577 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2578 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2579 in order not to need further allocation.)
2581 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2584 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2585 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2586 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2587 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2589 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2591 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2594 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2596 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2599 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2600 GC in percent of total heap size
2603 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2604 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2606 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2608 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2609 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2611 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2613 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2614 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2616 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2618 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2619 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2623 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2624 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2626 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2628 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2630 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2632 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2634 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2636 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2637 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2639 (simple-format port message . args)
2640 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2641 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2642 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2643 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2644 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2645 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2646 Does not add a trailing newline."
2648 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2650 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2651 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2653 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2654 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2656 ** Deprecated: list*
2658 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2660 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2662 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2663 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2665 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2666 is returned as result.
2668 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2670 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2672 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2674 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2675 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2678 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2680 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2682 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2683 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2685 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2687 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2689 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2691 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2693 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2695 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2697 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2699 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2700 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2701 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2703 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2706 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2708 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2709 the readability of argument checking.
2711 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2713 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2715 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2717 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2718 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2719 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2720 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2721 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2722 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2723 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2725 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2727 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2729 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2730 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2732 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2734 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2735 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2738 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2740 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2741 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2742 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2744 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2745 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2746 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2748 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2749 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2750 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2751 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2752 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2753 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2754 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2756 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2757 scm_end_input (object);
2758 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2759 ptob->flush (object);
2761 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2762 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2765 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2767 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2769 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2770 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2771 removed in a future version.
2773 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2775 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2776 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2777 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2778 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2780 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2781 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2783 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2786 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2788 in your configure.in.
2790 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2795 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2801 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2803 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2807 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2808 (define make-message string-append)
2810 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2812 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2816 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2821 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2825 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2827 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2828 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2830 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2832 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2833 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2834 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2835 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2836 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2837 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2839 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2840 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2841 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2843 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2844 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2845 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2848 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2849 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2850 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2851 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2852 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2854 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2855 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2856 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2857 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2858 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2859 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2860 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2862 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2864 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2865 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2866 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2868 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2869 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2870 KEY in the calling thread.
2872 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2873 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2874 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2875 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2876 associated with the key.
2878 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2880 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2881 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2883 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2885 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2886 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2887 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2889 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2891 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2892 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2894 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2896 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2898 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2899 returned is undefined.
2901 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2902 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2903 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2905 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2906 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2907 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2909 ** New C level GC hooks
2911 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2913 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2916 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2917 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2918 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2920 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2921 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2922 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2924 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2925 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2928 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2930 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2931 allocation parameters
2933 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2934 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2935 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2939 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2940 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2941 scm_default_max_segment_size
2943 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2945 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2946 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2948 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2950 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2951 object and count on the object being protected until
2952 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2954 The functions also have better time complexity.
2956 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2957 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2958 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2959 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2960 are no longer needed.
2962 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2964 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2965 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2966 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2967 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2969 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2971 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2973 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2975 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2976 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2977 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2978 until this issue has been settled.
2980 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2982 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2984 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2987 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2989 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2991 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2992 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2993 descriptors were checked.
2995 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2996 atomically written to a pipe.
2998 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2999 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3000 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3001 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3002 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3003 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3004 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3007 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3008 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3009 is changed without calling tzset.
3011 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3013 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3014 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3015 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3017 (define write-network-long
3018 (lambda (value port)
3019 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3020 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3021 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3023 (define read-network-long
3025 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3026 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3027 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3029 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3030 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3032 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3033 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3034 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3035 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3037 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3038 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3039 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3040 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3044 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3046 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3050 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3051 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3052 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3058 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3059 for a description of available commands.
3061 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3062 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3063 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3065 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3067 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3068 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3070 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3072 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3074 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3075 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3076 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3077 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3078 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3079 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3082 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3084 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3085 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3086 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3087 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3089 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3090 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3092 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3094 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3096 ** Readline support has changed again.
3098 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3099 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3100 to activate readline is now
3102 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3105 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3107 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3108 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3109 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3112 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3113 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3114 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3117 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3118 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3119 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3120 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3121 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3122 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3124 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3125 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3127 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3129 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3130 object it receives is the same string passed to
3131 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3132 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3133 string, not the suffix.
3135 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3136 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3137 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3139 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3141 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3142 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3143 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3144 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3147 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3149 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3151 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3152 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3153 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3154 appear from left to right.
3156 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3159 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3161 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3162 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3164 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3168 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3170 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3172 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3174 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3175 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3176 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3178 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3180 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3182 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3184 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3187 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3189 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3190 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3191 mentioning it here anyway.
3193 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3195 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3196 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3197 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3198 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3201 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3203 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3205 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3207 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3208 otherwise return #f.
3210 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3212 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3213 returned by `opendir'.
3215 ** New function: using-readline?
3217 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3219 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3221 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3222 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3224 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3226 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3228 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3229 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3230 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3232 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3234 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3235 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3237 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3239 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3240 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3241 documentation slots are not yet used.
3243 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3245 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3246 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3247 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3252 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3253 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3254 (string-append x y))
3256 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3257 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3259 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3260 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3261 be made in a clean way.]
3263 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3265 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3267 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3269 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3270 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3272 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3274 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3276 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3278 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3280 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3281 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3282 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3283 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3286 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3288 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3290 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3292 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3294 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3295 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3297 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3299 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3301 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3303 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3305 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3306 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3307 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3308 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3309 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3310 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3312 This should not make any difference for most users.
3314 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3316 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3317 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3319 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3321 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3322 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3323 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3324 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3325 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3327 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3329 It is now replaced by:
3331 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3333 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3334 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3336 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3338 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3339 This might change when we get the new module system.
3341 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3345 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3347 * Changes to mailing lists
3349 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3351 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3354 * Changes to the distribution
3356 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3358 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3359 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3360 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3361 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3362 you explicitly specify it.
3364 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3365 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3366 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3367 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3368 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3371 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3372 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3373 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3374 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3376 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3377 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3378 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3381 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3383 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3386 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3388 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3390 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3391 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3392 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3393 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3395 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3396 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3399 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3401 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3402 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3403 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3404 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3405 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3406 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3407 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3408 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3420 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3421 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3422 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3423 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3424 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3429 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3430 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3438 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3443 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3444 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3447 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3448 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3449 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3450 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3452 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3454 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3456 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3457 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3459 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3461 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3463 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3464 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3466 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3469 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3471 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3473 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3475 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3477 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3479 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3481 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3482 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3483 when the hook was created.
3485 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3486 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3487 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3488 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3489 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3490 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3491 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3492 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3493 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3495 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3496 the dlopen family of functions.
3498 ** New function `provided?'
3500 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3501 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3502 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3503 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3505 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3507 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3508 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3509 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3510 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3513 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3514 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3515 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3516 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3518 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3519 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3520 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3523 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3524 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3525 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3526 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3527 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3528 but with the flag set.
3530 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3532 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3533 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3535 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3536 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3537 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3538 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3539 available Scheme format implementations.
3541 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3542 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3543 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3544 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3545 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3546 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3547 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3548 output is to the current error port if available by the
3549 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3552 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3553 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3554 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3555 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3556 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3557 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3558 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3559 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3561 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3562 be executed at a time.
3565 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3567 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3568 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3569 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3571 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3572 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3573 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3574 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3575 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3576 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3577 general form of a directive is:
3579 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3581 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3583 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3585 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3586 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3587 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3590 Any (print as `display' does).
3594 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3598 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3602 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3608 print number sign always.
3611 print comma separated.
3613 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3619 print number sign always.
3622 print comma separated.
3624 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3630 print number sign always.
3633 print comma separated.
3635 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3641 print number sign always.
3644 print comma separated.
3646 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3651 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3655 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3658 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3661 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3664 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3669 prints `y' and `ies'.
3672 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3675 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3680 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3684 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3687 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3688 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3690 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3693 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3694 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3696 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3699 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3701 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3703 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3706 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3708 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3710 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3713 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3716 The sign appears before the padding.
3724 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3726 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3731 print N page separators.
3741 newline is ignored, white space left.
3744 newline is left, white space ignored.
3749 relative tabulation.
3755 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3757 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3760 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3762 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3765 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3768 converts by `string-upcase'.
3771 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3773 jumps N arguments forward.
3776 jumps 1 argument backward.
3779 jumps N arguments backward.
3782 jumps to the 0th argument.
3785 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3787 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3788 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3790 take argument from N.
3793 true test conditional.
3796 if-else-then conditional.
3802 default clause follows.
3805 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3807 at most N iterations.
3810 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3813 args from the rest of arguments.
3816 args from the rest args (lists).
3827 aborts if N <= M <= K
3829 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3832 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3835 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3841 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3843 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3845 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3846 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3847 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3848 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3849 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3850 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3854 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3858 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3864 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3867 Print a `#\space' character
3869 print N `#\space' characters.
3872 Print a `#\tab' character
3874 print N `#\tab' characters.
3877 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3878 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3879 must be a positive decimal number.
3882 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3883 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3884 be processed by `read'.
3887 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3888 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3889 be processed by `read'.
3892 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3895 prints format version.
3898 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3899 and format it accordingly.
3901 *** Configuration Variables
3903 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3904 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3905 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3906 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3909 format:symbol-case-conv
3910 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3911 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3912 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3913 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3914 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3916 format:iobj-case-conv
3917 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3918 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3921 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3924 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3930 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3931 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3932 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3933 `format' padding style.
3936 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3937 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3938 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3939 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3943 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3944 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3945 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3948 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3949 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3950 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3951 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3952 parameters or modifiers)).
3955 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3957 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3959 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3960 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3962 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3963 string-downcase! functions.
3965 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3966 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3968 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3971 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3974 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3975 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3977 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3979 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3980 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3982 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3983 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3984 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3985 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3986 would if STRING were input.
3988 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3990 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3991 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3992 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3993 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3996 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3998 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3999 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4002 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4004 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4005 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4007 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4008 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4010 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4011 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4012 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4013 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4015 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4016 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4018 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4019 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4020 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4022 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4023 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4025 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4026 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4027 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4028 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4029 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4031 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4032 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4033 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4034 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4035 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4036 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4038 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4039 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4040 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4043 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4044 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4045 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4046 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4047 the following grammar:
4048 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4049 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4050 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4051 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4052 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4053 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4054 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4055 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4056 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4057 last option in its combination)
4059 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4060 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4061 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4062 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4064 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4065 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4066 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4068 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4069 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4070 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4072 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4073 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4074 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4075 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4076 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4077 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4078 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4079 ordinary argument strings.
4081 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4082 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4083 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4084 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4086 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4087 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4089 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4090 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4091 - a required option is omitted
4092 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4093 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4094 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4095 - an option predicate fails
4100 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4103 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4104 (verbose (required? #f)
4107 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4108 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4109 (predicate ,string?))))
4111 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4112 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4114 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4115 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4116 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4117 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4120 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4122 It will be removed in a few releases.
4124 ** New syntax: lambda*
4125 ** New syntax: define*
4126 ** New syntax: define*-public
4127 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4128 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4129 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4131 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4132 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4133 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4134 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4135 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4137 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4138 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4139 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4141 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4143 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4144 and examples for `lambda*':
4147 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4149 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4150 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4151 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4152 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4153 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4154 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4155 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4156 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4158 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4160 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4161 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4162 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4163 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4165 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4166 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4167 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4168 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4169 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4170 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4171 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4172 and until the procedure is called.
4174 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4176 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4177 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4178 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4179 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4180 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4181 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4182 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4183 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4184 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4185 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4187 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4188 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4189 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4190 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4193 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4195 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4196 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4197 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4198 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4200 ** New syntax: and-let*
4201 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4203 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4204 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4205 (<variable> <expression>)
4208 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4209 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4210 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4213 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4214 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4215 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4216 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4217 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4218 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4219 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4221 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4222 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4223 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4224 shadow earlier bindings.
4226 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4228 ** New sorting functions
4230 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4231 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4232 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4233 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4235 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4236 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4239 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4240 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4241 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4243 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4244 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4245 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4246 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4248 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4249 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4250 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4251 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4252 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4255 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4256 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4257 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4258 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4259 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4260 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4262 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4263 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4264 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4266 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4267 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4268 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4271 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4272 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4273 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4275 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4276 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4278 ** New built-in random number support
4280 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4281 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4282 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4283 returned have a uniform distribution.
4285 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4286 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4287 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4288 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4289 effect of the `random' operation.
4291 *** New variable: *random-state*
4292 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4293 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4294 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4295 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4296 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4299 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4300 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4301 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4302 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4303 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4305 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4306 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4307 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4308 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4309 initialized using SEED.
4311 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4312 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4313 range between 0 and 1.
4315 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4316 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4317 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4318 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4319 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4320 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4321 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4323 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4324 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4325 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4326 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4327 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4328 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4330 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4331 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4332 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4333 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4335 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4336 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4337 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4338 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4340 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4341 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4342 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4344 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4346 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4349 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4350 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4353 ** New function: make-guardian
4354 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4355 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4356 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4357 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4358 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4360 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4361 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4362 one object if at all.
4364 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4365 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4366 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4368 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4369 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4370 read again in last-in first-out order.
4372 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4373 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4375 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4377 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4378 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4379 file position is used.
4381 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4382 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4383 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4385 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4386 redefined using seek.
4388 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4389 size is not supplied.
4391 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4392 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4394 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4395 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4397 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4399 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4400 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4401 and returns the contents as a single string.
4403 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4404 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4405 lists in serial order.
4407 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4408 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4409 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4411 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4412 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4413 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4414 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4416 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4417 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4418 and #f if an error occured.
4420 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4422 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4423 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4424 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4425 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4427 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4429 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4432 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4434 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4437 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4441 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4442 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4444 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4445 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4449 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4451 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4453 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4454 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4456 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4458 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4459 might change when we get the new module system.
4461 ** The smob interface
4463 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4464 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4466 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4468 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4472 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4473 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4474 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4475 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4476 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4477 will be freed by the default free function.
4479 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4480 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4481 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4482 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4484 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4485 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4486 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4487 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4489 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4491 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4492 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4496 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4497 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4498 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4500 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4501 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4502 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4503 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4505 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4506 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4507 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4509 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4510 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4511 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4512 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4514 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4515 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4516 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4518 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4522 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4524 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4525 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4526 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4528 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4529 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4530 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4532 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4533 a string port's buffer.
4535 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4536 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4537 function pointers which together define the current random number
4538 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4539 number library functions.
4541 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4544 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4545 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4548 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4549 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4551 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4552 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4554 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4555 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4558 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4559 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4560 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4561 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4563 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4564 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4565 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4566 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4567 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4568 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4569 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4571 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4572 by libguile and the application.
4574 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4575 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4576 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4577 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4579 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4580 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4582 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4583 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4584 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4586 ** Random number library functions
4587 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4588 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4589 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4591 The default random state is stored in:
4593 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4594 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4595 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4600 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4602 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4603 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4604 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4605 isn't a random state.
4607 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4608 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4610 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4611 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4612 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4613 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4615 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4616 Return 32 random bits.
4618 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4619 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4621 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4622 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4624 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4625 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4627 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4628 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4630 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4631 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4632 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4636 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4638 * Changes to the distribution
4640 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4641 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4642 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4645 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4646 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4647 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4649 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4650 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4651 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4652 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4655 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4656 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4657 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4659 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4661 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4663 *** Function: batch-mode?
4665 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4668 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4670 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4671 case has not been implemented.
4673 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4674 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4675 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4678 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4679 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4681 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4683 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4685 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4687 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4688 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4691 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4692 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4693 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4694 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4697 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4699 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4700 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4701 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4702 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4703 find those libraries.
4705 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4706 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4709 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4711 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4712 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4713 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4714 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4716 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4717 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4718 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4722 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4724 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4725 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4726 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4729 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4730 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4731 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4732 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4734 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4735 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4738 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4739 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4740 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4741 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4742 compiler where to find the libraries.
4744 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4745 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4746 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4748 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4749 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4750 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4751 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4752 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4756 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4758 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4759 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4760 internationalization support.
4762 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4763 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4764 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4765 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4766 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4768 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4769 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4770 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4771 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4772 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4774 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4775 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4776 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4777 any GNU mirror site.
4779 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4781 ** New function: add-history STRING
4782 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4783 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4784 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4786 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4788 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4789 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4790 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4793 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4794 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4795 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4797 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4799 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4802 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4803 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4806 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4807 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4808 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4809 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4810 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4811 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4813 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4814 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4815 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4816 of the form mentioned above.
4818 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4819 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4820 returned in the special `rest' list.
4822 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4823 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4825 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4827 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4829 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4831 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4832 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4833 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4834 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4835 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4836 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4837 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4838 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4841 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4843 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4845 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4846 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4849 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4850 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4851 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4855 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4856 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4857 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4858 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4859 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4860 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4861 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4862 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4865 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4867 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4868 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4869 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4871 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4873 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4874 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4876 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4877 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4878 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4880 Why do we have this function?
4881 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4882 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4883 primitive, and display it differently, and
4884 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4885 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4888 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4889 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4892 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4893 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4894 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4895 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4897 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4898 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4901 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4902 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4904 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4906 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4907 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4908 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4909 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4910 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4911 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4912 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4915 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4917 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4918 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4920 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4921 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4922 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4923 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4924 properly continue the print chain.
4926 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4927 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4928 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4929 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4930 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4931 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4932 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4933 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4935 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4936 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4937 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4938 safest to not check for these pairs.
4940 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4941 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4942 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4943 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4945 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4947 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4948 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4950 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4952 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4954 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4955 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4956 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4958 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4959 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4960 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4962 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4963 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4964 the following functions and macros:
4966 Function: make-fluid
4968 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4969 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4970 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4971 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4972 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4974 Function: fluid? OBJ
4976 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4978 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4979 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4981 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4982 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4984 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4986 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4987 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4988 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4989 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4990 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4991 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4992 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4994 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4996 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4997 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4998 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4999 should evaluate to a fluid.
5001 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5003 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5004 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5005 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5006 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5007 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5009 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5012 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5014 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5016 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5018 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5021 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5022 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5023 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5024 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5025 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5028 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5029 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5030 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5032 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5033 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5034 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5036 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5037 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5038 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5039 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5041 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5042 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5043 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5044 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5046 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5047 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5048 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5049 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5051 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5052 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5053 their revealed counts set to zero.
5055 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5056 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5058 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5059 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5061 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5062 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5064 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5065 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5066 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5068 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5069 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5070 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5072 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5073 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5074 default environment inherited by child processes.
5076 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5077 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5078 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5080 The return value is unspecified.
5082 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5083 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5084 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5085 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5086 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5088 The return value is unspecified.
5090 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5091 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5099 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5100 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5103 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5106 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5107 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5108 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5110 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5111 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5112 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5113 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5116 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5117 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5119 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5120 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5121 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5122 the `environ' procedure.
5124 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5125 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5128 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5129 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5131 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5132 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5133 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5134 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5136 *** procedure: times
5137 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5138 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5139 return a selected component:
5142 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5146 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5149 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5153 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5154 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5158 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5159 terminated child processes.
5161 ** Removed: list-length
5162 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5163 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5165 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5167 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5169 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5171 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5172 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5173 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5174 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5176 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5177 extra complexity it introduces.
5179 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5180 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5182 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5183 variable to any non-empty value.
5185 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5186 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5188 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5190 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5191 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5193 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5195 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5196 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5198 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5200 ** vector handling routines
5202 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5203 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5204 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5205 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5206 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5208 ** pair and list routines
5210 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5213 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5215 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5218 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5220 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5222 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5223 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5224 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5225 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5226 site-specific initialization code.
5228 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5229 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5230 initialization processes.
5232 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5233 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5234 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5235 initialized properly.
5237 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5238 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5239 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5241 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5242 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5243 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5244 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5245 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5247 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5249 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5250 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5251 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5252 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5253 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5255 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5256 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5257 which look like this:
5260 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5262 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5263 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5266 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5267 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5270 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5272 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5273 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5274 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5276 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5277 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5278 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5279 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5280 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5282 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5283 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5285 int (*free) (SCM port);
5286 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5287 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5288 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5292 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5293 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5294 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5296 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5299 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5300 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5301 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5303 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5304 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5305 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5308 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5312 struct timeval *timeout);
5314 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5315 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5316 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5317 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5318 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5319 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5321 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5322 scm_catch_body_t body,
5324 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5327 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5328 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5329 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5330 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5331 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5332 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5334 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5336 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5339 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5340 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5341 spawning threads from application C code.
5343 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5344 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5345 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5346 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5347 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5348 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5350 ** Removed functions:
5352 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5353 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5355 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5357 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5358 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5360 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5362 ** mbstrings are now removed
5364 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5365 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5367 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5369 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5370 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5371 their new names and arguments:
5373 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5374 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5375 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5376 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5379 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5381 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5383 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5386 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5388 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5389 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5390 pass a #f arg to catch.
5392 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5394 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5395 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5398 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5399 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5400 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5401 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5402 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5403 reclaim its storage.
5405 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5406 worrying that some other function you call will call
5407 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5408 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5409 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5410 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5413 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5415 * Changes to the distribution
5417 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5418 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5421 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5422 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5424 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5425 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5427 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5429 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5430 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5431 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5433 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5435 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5436 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5437 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5438 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5439 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5440 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5442 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5443 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5444 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5447 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5448 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5449 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5450 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5452 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5453 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5454 libraries to your link command:
5456 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5457 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5458 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5459 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5461 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5462 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5463 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5465 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5467 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5468 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5471 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5473 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5474 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5475 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5476 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5477 searched is system dependent.
5479 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5481 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5483 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5485 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5486 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5488 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5490 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5491 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5492 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5493 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5494 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5497 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5499 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5500 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5501 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5502 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5503 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5505 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5507 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5508 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5510 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5512 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5513 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5514 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5517 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5519 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5520 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5521 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5522 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5524 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5525 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5527 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5529 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5530 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5532 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5534 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5535 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5543 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5545 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5546 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5547 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5548 a more informative way.
5550 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5551 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5552 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5553 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5554 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5555 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5557 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5558 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5561 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5562 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5563 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5566 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5567 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5568 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5569 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5570 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5571 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5573 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5574 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5575 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5576 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5579 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5580 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5581 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5582 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5583 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5584 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5586 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5587 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5588 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5589 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5590 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5592 *** regexp functions
5594 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5595 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5596 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5598 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5599 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5600 with SCSH regular expressions.
5602 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5603 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5604 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5605 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5607 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5608 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5609 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5610 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5612 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5613 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5614 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5615 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5616 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5617 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5619 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5620 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5621 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5622 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5623 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5625 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5627 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5628 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5629 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5630 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5632 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5633 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5634 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5636 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5637 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5639 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5642 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5643 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5644 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5646 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5647 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5648 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5650 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5651 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5652 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5653 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5654 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5657 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5659 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5660 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5661 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5662 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5663 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5664 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5666 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5667 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5668 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5670 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5671 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5674 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5675 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5677 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5678 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5679 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5680 may be one of the following arguments:
5682 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5684 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5686 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5687 the regexp match is written.
5689 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5690 following the regexp match is written.
5692 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5693 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5696 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5697 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5698 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5699 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5700 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5701 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5703 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5706 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5707 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5708 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5709 written out to PORT.
5711 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5712 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5713 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5714 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5715 will return after processing a single match.
5717 *** Match Structures
5719 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5720 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5721 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5722 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5723 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5724 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5727 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5728 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5729 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5730 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5731 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5733 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5734 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5735 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5737 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5738 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5739 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5740 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5741 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5743 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5744 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5746 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5747 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5749 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5750 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5752 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5753 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5755 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5756 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5757 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5758 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5760 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5761 Return the original TARGET string.
5763 *** Backslash Escapes
5765 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5766 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5767 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5768 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5769 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5770 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5772 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5773 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5774 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5775 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5776 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5777 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5778 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5779 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5781 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5782 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5783 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5784 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5785 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5786 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5787 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5789 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5790 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5791 return the resulting string.
5793 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5794 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5795 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5796 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5797 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5798 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5799 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5800 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5801 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5802 translated to the single character `*'.
5804 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5805 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5806 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5807 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5808 consecutive backslashes:
5810 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5812 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5813 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5814 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5816 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5817 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5818 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5819 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5820 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5821 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5823 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5825 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5826 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5827 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5828 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5829 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5830 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5831 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5832 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5833 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5834 cumbersome escape syntax.
5836 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5838 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5840 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5842 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5845 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5847 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5849 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5852 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5853 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5854 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5855 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5856 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5858 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5859 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5860 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5861 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5862 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5863 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5864 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5867 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5868 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5869 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5872 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5873 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5875 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5876 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5877 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5878 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5879 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5880 installed, you can say:
5882 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5885 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5887 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5888 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5889 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5890 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5891 new dynamic roots and threads.
5894 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5896 * Changes to the distribution.
5898 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5900 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5901 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5902 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5903 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5904 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5905 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5906 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5907 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5909 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5912 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5913 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5918 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5920 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5921 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5923 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5924 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5925 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5926 the (command-line) function.
5927 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5928 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5929 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5931 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5932 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5933 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5934 command line arguments
5935 -ds do -s script at this point
5936 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5937 -h, --help display this help and exit
5938 -v, --version display version information and exit
5939 \ read arguments from following script lines
5941 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5942 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5944 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5947 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5951 (main (command-line))
5953 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5955 ekko a speckled gecko
5957 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5958 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5959 following list of command-line arguments:
5961 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5963 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5964 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5965 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5966 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5967 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5969 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5971 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5973 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5974 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5977 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5978 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5979 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5980 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5982 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5983 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5984 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5985 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5987 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5991 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5995 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5997 ekko a speckled gecko
5999 Unix expands this into
6001 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6003 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6004 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6006 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6008 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6009 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6011 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6012 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6013 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6014 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6015 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6016 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6017 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6018 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6019 it only terminates the argument list.)
6020 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6021 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6022 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6023 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6024 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6025 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6026 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6027 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6029 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6031 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6032 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6033 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6034 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6035 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6037 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6038 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6039 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6041 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6043 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6044 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6045 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6046 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6049 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6050 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6051 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6053 * Changes to Scheme functions
6055 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6056 and disabled by default.
6058 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6059 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6060 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6061 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6063 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6065 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6067 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6068 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6070 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6071 (read-set! keywords #f)
6073 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6074 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6075 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6078 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6079 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6080 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6083 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6084 support for Scheme functions.
6086 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6087 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6088 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6089 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6092 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6093 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6094 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6097 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6098 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6099 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6102 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6103 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6104 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6105 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6106 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6107 display the result as a prompt.
6108 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6110 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6111 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6112 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6115 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6116 procedure of zero arguments.
6118 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6119 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6120 argument is bound in the current module.
6122 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6123 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6124 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6125 public bindings into the current module.
6127 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6128 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6130 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6131 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6133 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6134 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6136 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6137 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6139 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6140 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6142 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6143 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6144 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6145 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6146 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6148 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6149 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6150 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6151 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6153 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6156 ** Changes to I/O functions
6158 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6159 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6160 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6162 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6163 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6164 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6166 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6167 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6169 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6170 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6171 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6172 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6174 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6176 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6177 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6179 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6180 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6181 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6182 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6183 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6186 'trim omit delimiter from result
6187 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6188 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6189 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6191 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6193 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6194 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6196 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6197 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6198 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6199 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6200 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6202 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6203 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6204 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6206 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6207 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6208 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6209 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6211 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6212 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6214 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6215 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6217 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6219 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6220 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6221 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6222 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6223 a delimiting character.
6224 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6226 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6227 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6228 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6229 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6230 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6231 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6233 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6234 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6236 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6237 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6238 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6240 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6241 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6242 the array to read and write.
6244 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6245 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6248 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6250 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6253 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6254 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6255 Values for COMMAND are:
6257 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6258 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6259 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6260 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6261 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6262 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6263 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6264 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6266 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6268 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6269 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6270 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6271 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6272 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6273 corresponding return set will be the same.
6275 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6278 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6279 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6280 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6281 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6282 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6283 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6284 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6285 special file being created.
6287 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6288 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6290 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6291 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6292 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6293 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6294 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6295 and originating address.
6297 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6298 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6299 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6301 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6304 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6305 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6308 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6309 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6310 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6311 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6312 this function returns #f.
6314 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6315 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6316 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6319 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6320 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6321 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6324 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6325 a valid STATUS value.
6327 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6329 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6330 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6332 Component Accessor Setter
6333 ========================= ============ ============
6334 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6335 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6336 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6337 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6338 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6339 year tm:year set-tm:year
6340 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6341 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6342 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6343 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6344 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6346 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6347 describing the host system:
6350 ============================================== ================
6351 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6352 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6353 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6354 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6355 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6357 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6358 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6359 system's user database:
6362 ====================== =================
6363 user name passwd:name
6364 user password passwd:passwd
6367 real name passwd:gecos
6368 home directory passwd:dir
6369 shell program passwd:shell
6371 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6372 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6373 system's group database:
6376 ======================= ============
6377 group name group:name
6378 group password group:passwd
6380 group members group:mem
6382 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6383 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6387 ========================= ===============
6388 official name of host hostent:name
6389 alias list hostent:aliases
6390 host address type hostent:addrtype
6391 length of address hostent:length
6392 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6394 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6395 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6399 ========================= ===============
6400 official name of net netent:name
6401 alias list netent:aliases
6402 net number type netent:addrtype
6403 net number netent:net
6405 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6406 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6410 ========================= ===============
6411 official protocol name protoent:name
6412 alias list protoent:aliases
6413 protocol number protoent:proto
6415 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6416 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6420 ========================= ===============
6421 official service name servent:name
6422 alias list servent:aliases
6423 port number servent:port
6424 protocol to use servent:proto
6426 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6427 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6430 ======================================== ===============
6431 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6432 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6433 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6434 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6436 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6437 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6438 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6440 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6441 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6443 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6444 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6446 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6447 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6449 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6451 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6453 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6454 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6455 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6457 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6458 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6459 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6460 return the remaining characters as a string.
6462 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6463 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6464 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6466 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6468 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6470 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6473 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6476 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6477 and returns the array
6479 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6480 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6481 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6483 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6485 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6486 symbol's value from C code:
6488 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6489 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6490 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6491 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6493 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6494 without assigning them a value.
6496 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6497 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6498 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6500 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6501 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6502 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6504 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6505 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6507 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6508 doesn't actually care about that.
6510 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6511 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6512 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6514 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6515 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6516 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6517 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6518 which we have just created and initialized.
6520 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6521 should one occur. We call it like this:
6522 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6524 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6525 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6526 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6527 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6528 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6529 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6532 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6533 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6534 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6535 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6536 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6537 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6538 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6541 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6542 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6543 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6544 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6545 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6548 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6549 scm_internal_catch, except:
6551 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6552 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6553 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6554 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6557 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6558 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6559 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6561 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6562 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6563 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6564 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6567 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6568 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6569 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6571 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6572 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6573 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6574 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6575 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6577 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6578 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6579 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6581 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6582 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6583 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6585 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6586 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6588 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6589 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6590 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6593 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6594 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6595 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6596 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6597 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6598 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6599 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6602 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6603 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6605 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6606 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6607 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6608 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6609 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6612 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6613 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6615 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6616 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6619 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6620 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6622 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6625 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6626 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6627 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6628 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6629 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6630 given the following arguments:
6632 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6634 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6636 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6638 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6641 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6642 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6643 command-line arguments.
6645 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6646 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6647 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6648 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6649 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6650 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6653 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6656 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6657 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6659 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6660 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6662 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6663 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6664 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6665 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6667 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6668 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6670 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6671 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6672 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6673 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6675 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6676 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6678 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6679 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6681 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6683 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6684 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6685 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6688 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6689 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6691 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6692 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6697 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6700 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6702 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6703 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6704 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6705 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6707 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6709 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6711 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6712 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6713 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6714 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6715 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6716 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6717 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6718 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6719 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6720 for more information.
6722 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6723 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6725 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6726 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6727 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6728 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6729 following two lines at the top of the file:
6731 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6734 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6735 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6736 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6738 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6740 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6742 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6745 (display (car args))
6746 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6748 (loop (cdr args)))))
6751 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6752 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6753 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6754 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6755 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6756 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6760 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6763 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6766 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6768 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6769 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6770 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6771 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6772 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6775 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6776 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6777 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6778 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6779 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6782 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6785 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6786 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6787 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6790 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6791 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6792 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6794 to see a backtrace, and
6795 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6796 to see them by default.
6800 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6802 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6804 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6805 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6808 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6809 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6810 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6811 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6814 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6815 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6816 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6817 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6818 functions which inspired them.
6820 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6821 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6825 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6827 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6829 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6830 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6833 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6834 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6835 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6837 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6838 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6839 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6840 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6841 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6843 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6845 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6846 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6847 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6850 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6853 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6855 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6856 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6857 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6858 above should serve their purposes.
6860 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6861 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6862 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6863 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6865 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6868 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6869 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6870 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6871 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6873 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6874 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6875 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6876 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6878 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6879 for the `read' function.
6882 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6883 to that of `integer?'.
6885 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6886 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6888 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6889 it simply returns the object's property list.
6891 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6892 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6893 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6894 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6896 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6898 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6901 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6903 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6904 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6906 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6908 void (*main_func) (),
6911 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6912 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6913 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6914 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6915 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6917 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6918 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6919 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6920 know which arguments have been processed.
6922 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6923 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6924 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6925 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6926 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6928 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6929 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6930 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6931 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6932 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6933 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6934 people from making that mistake.
6936 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6937 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6939 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6941 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6945 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6948 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6949 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6950 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6951 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6954 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6955 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6956 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6957 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6960 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6961 have been added to the Guile library.
6963 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6964 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6965 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6968 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6969 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6970 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6972 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6973 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6974 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6975 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6976 argument from the list.
6979 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6982 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6983 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6985 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6986 to a Scheme port object.
6988 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6989 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6994 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6996 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6997 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6998 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6999 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7000 code as a special datatype.
7002 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7003 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7004 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7005 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7006 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7009 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7010 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7011 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7012 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7013 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7015 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7018 Copyright information:
7020 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7022 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7023 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7024 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7025 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7027 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7028 of this document, or of portions of it,
7029 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7030 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7035 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"