1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
10 * New modules (see the manual for details)
12 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', multithreading support
13 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
15 * Changes to the distribution
17 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
19 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
20 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
22 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
23 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
25 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
26 This slightly improves program startup times.
28 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
29 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
31 * Changes to the C interface
33 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
35 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
37 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
40 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
41 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
43 ** Primitive procedures (aka. "subrs") are now stored in double cells
44 This removes the subr table and simplifies the code.
47 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
51 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
52 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
53 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
54 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
56 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
58 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
59 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
60 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
64 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
66 * New features (see the manual for details)
68 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
70 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
72 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
73 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
74 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
76 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
78 * Changes to the distribution
80 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
82 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
83 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
85 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
87 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
88 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
93 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
94 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
95 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
96 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
97 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
98 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
99 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
100 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
101 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
102 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
103 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
104 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
105 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
106 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
108 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
109 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
110 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
111 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
112 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
115 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
117 * Infrastructure changes
119 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
121 The new repository can be accessed using
122 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
123 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
125 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
127 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
129 * New modules (see the manual for details)
133 * New features (see the manual for details)
135 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
136 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
137 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
139 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
140 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
141 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
142 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
144 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
146 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
147 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
148 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
152 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
153 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
155 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
156 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
158 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
159 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
161 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
162 lead to a stack overflow.
164 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
165 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
166 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
167 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
168 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
169 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
170 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
171 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
172 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
173 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
174 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
175 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
176 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
177 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
178 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
179 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
181 * Changes to the distribution
185 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
186 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
189 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
193 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
194 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
195 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
196 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
197 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
198 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
199 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
200 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
201 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
202 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
203 system and library calls.
204 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
205 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
206 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
207 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
208 uniform vectors on AIX.
209 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
210 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
211 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
212 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
213 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
215 * New modules (see the manual for details)
219 * Documentation fixes and improvements
221 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
223 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
224 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
226 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
228 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
230 * Changes to the distribution
232 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
234 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
235 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
236 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
238 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
240 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
243 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
245 * New modules (see the manual for details)
252 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
253 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
254 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
255 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
256 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
257 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
258 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
260 * Implementation improvements
262 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
263 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
266 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
268 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
270 ** set-program-arguments
273 * Incompatible changes
275 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
277 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
278 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
279 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
280 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
285 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
286 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
287 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
288 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
289 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
290 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
292 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
293 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
294 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
295 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
296 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
297 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
298 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
299 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
300 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
301 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
302 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
303 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
304 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
305 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
306 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
307 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
310 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
312 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
314 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
316 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
317 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
318 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
319 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
320 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
321 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
329 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
331 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
333 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
335 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
337 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
339 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
341 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
342 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
343 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
345 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
347 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
349 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
350 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
352 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
354 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
355 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
357 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
359 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
361 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
363 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
365 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
367 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
369 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
371 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
373 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
375 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
376 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
377 file was on a different device.
380 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
382 * Changes to the distribution
384 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
386 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
388 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
390 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
392 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
394 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
397 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
399 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
400 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
401 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
402 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
403 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
404 items like the versioned share directory name
405 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
407 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
408 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
409 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
410 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
411 with each micro release during a stable series.
413 ** Thread implementation has changed.
415 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
416 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
417 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
418 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
419 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
422 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
423 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
424 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
425 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
428 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
429 in which case "null" threads are used.
431 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
432 "Blocking", and others.
434 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
436 This is a milder form of deprecation.
438 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
439 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
440 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
441 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
442 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
444 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
445 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
447 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
449 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
450 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
452 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
455 This SRFI is always available.
457 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
459 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
460 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
461 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
462 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
465 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
467 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
468 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
469 parameters without currying.
471 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
473 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
474 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
476 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
477 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
480 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
481 with a renaming import, for example.
483 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
485 The official version is good enough now.
487 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
489 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
490 provided. Use 'make html'.
492 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
494 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
495 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
496 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
497 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
499 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
501 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
504 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
506 ** New command line option `-L'.
508 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
510 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
512 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
513 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
515 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
517 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
518 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
520 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
522 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
523 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
526 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
529 (define-module (demo)
533 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
536 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
538 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
540 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
541 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
542 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
544 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
546 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
547 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
549 ** New function hashx-remove!
551 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
553 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
554 barriers and dynamic states.
556 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
557 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
558 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
561 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
562 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
563 Barriers" in the manual.
565 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
566 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
568 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
570 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
571 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
572 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
575 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
577 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
578 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
580 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
581 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
582 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
584 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
585 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
587 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
588 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
589 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
591 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
592 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
593 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
596 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
597 substrings and read-only strings.
599 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
600 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
603 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
605 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
614 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
615 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
616 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
618 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
619 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
620 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
623 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
624 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
627 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
629 See the manual for details.
631 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
633 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
636 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
638 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
639 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
640 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
641 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
643 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
644 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
645 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
648 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
650 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
651 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
662 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
666 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
671 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
675 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
679 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
682 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
683 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
684 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
685 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
687 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
688 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
691 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
694 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
698 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
700 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
701 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
702 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
705 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
708 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
710 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
713 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
714 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
722 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
723 has been detected is to
725 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
726 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
727 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
730 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
733 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
735 to your .guile init file.
737 ** New define-module option: :replace
739 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
742 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
743 for the core binding `format'.
745 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
747 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
748 a prefix to all imported bindings.
751 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
753 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
756 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
758 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
759 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
760 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
762 ** New function: effective-version
764 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
765 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
766 to the distribution" above.
768 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
770 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
771 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
773 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
775 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
776 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
778 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
780 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
781 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
784 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
786 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
788 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
790 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
791 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
792 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
795 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
796 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
797 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
800 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
801 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
803 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
804 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
805 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
808 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
810 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
811 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
814 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
815 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
817 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
818 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
819 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
820 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
821 level for the current thread.
823 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
825 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
827 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
828 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
831 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
833 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
835 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
838 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
840 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
843 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
844 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
845 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
847 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
848 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
849 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
850 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
861 ERROR: Numerical overflow
863 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
866 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
868 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
869 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
870 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
881 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
883 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
884 them is also done exactly, of course:
889 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
892 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
893 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
895 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
897 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
898 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
899 equal to a floating point number. For example:
901 (inexact->exact 1.234)
902 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
904 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
906 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
909 ** New function 'rationalize'.
911 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
912 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
914 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
917 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
918 result when both its arguments are exact.
920 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
922 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
923 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
924 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
926 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
928 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
929 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
930 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
932 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
935 ** pretty-print has more options.
937 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
938 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
939 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
941 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
943 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
944 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
945 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
947 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
949 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
950 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
952 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
954 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
955 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
958 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
960 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
961 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
962 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
963 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
964 without the soft port blocking.
966 ** Deprecated: undefine
968 There is no replacement for undefine.
970 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
971 have been discouraged.
973 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
974 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
975 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
978 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
980 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
982 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
983 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
984 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
985 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
988 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
989 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
990 be removed in the next major Guile release.
992 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
994 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
995 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
996 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
997 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
998 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
999 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
1001 * Changes to the C interface
1003 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
1004 take a 'delete' function argument.
1006 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
1007 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
1009 This is an incompatible change.
1011 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
1013 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
1014 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
1015 --disable-deprecated.
1017 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
1019 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
1020 Scheme values has been added.
1022 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
1023 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
1026 - int scm_is_* (...)
1028 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
1029 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
1031 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1033 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1034 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1037 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1039 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1040 scm_from_int for ints.
1042 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1043 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1044 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1046 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1048 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1049 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1050 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1053 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1055 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1057 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1059 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1060 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1061 following alternatives.
1063 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1064 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1065 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1066 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1068 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1069 do the validating for you.
1071 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1072 have been discouraged.
1074 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1075 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1078 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1080 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1081 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1084 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1086 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1089 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1092 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1094 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1095 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1097 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1098 scm_truncate_number should have.
1100 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1101 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1103 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1106 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1107 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1108 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1110 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1111 easier to use from C.
1113 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1114 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1116 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1117 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1118 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1121 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1122 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1123 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1124 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1127 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1128 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1129 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1130 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1131 and is thus quite efficient.
1133 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1135 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1136 about the character encoding.
1138 Replace according to the following table:
1140 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1141 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1142 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1143 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1144 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1145 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1146 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1147 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1148 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1150 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1151 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1153 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1155 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1156 now also available to C code.
1158 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1160 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1161 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1162 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1164 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1167 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1169 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1170 unceremoniously removed.
1172 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1173 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1174 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1176 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1177 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1178 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1179 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1180 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1181 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1184 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1186 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1187 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1188 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1189 manual for more details.
1191 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1192 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1194 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1195 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1196 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1198 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1200 Migrate according to the following table:
1202 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1203 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1204 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1205 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1206 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1207 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1208 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1210 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1211 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1212 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1213 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1214 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1215 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1216 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1218 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1220 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1221 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1223 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1224 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1225 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1226 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1228 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1230 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1231 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1232 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1234 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1235 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1237 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1238 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1239 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1240 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1242 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1244 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1245 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1246 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1247 prevent a potential memory leak:
1254 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1256 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1257 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1259 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1260 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1267 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1268 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1272 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1274 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1276 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1277 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1278 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1280 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1281 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1283 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1285 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1287 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1288 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1289 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1291 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1292 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1294 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1295 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1296 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1297 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1300 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1302 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1303 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1304 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1306 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1308 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1309 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1311 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1313 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1314 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1316 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1318 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1319 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1320 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1322 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1324 You should not have used them.
1326 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1328 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1329 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1331 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1333 This macro is not intended for public use.
1335 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1337 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1339 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1341 Use scm_is_real instead.
1343 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1345 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1347 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1349 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1350 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1352 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1353 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1355 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1356 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1358 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1360 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1363 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1365 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1366 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1367 to the distribution" above.
1369 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1371 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1372 arguments are now passed directly:
1374 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1376 This is an incompatible change.
1378 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1380 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1381 function in the init section.
1383 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1385 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1387 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1388 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1389 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1390 stays roughly constant.
1392 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1393 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1394 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1395 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1396 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1399 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1400 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1401 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1402 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1404 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1405 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1406 objects for every type.
1409 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1411 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1413 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1415 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1416 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1417 initializes a new cell (see below).
1419 ** New functions for memory management
1421 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1422 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1423 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1424 cause aborts in long running programs.
1426 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1427 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1429 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1430 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1431 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1432 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1433 details and for upgrading instructions.
1435 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1436 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1437 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1439 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1441 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1442 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1443 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1444 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1445 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1447 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1448 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1449 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1451 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1452 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1454 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1456 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1457 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1458 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1459 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1460 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1462 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1464 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1467 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1469 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1471 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1473 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1474 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1476 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1478 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1479 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1481 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1482 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1484 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1486 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1488 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1489 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1490 blocking it is not well defined.
1492 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1494 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1495 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1496 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1497 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1498 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1499 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1500 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1501 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1502 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1503 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1504 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1505 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1506 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1507 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1508 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1509 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1510 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1511 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1512 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1513 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1514 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1515 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1516 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1517 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1518 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1519 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1520 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1521 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1522 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1523 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1524 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1526 * Changes to bundled modules
1530 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1531 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1532 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1533 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1534 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1537 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1539 * Changes to the distribution
1541 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1543 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1545 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1546 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1547 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1548 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1549 indicate major changes in Guile.
1551 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1552 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1553 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1554 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1556 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1557 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1558 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1559 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1560 micro version number.
1562 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1564 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1566 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1567 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1569 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1571 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1572 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1573 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1575 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1577 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1578 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1579 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1582 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1584 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1587 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1589 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1590 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1592 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1594 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1595 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1598 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1600 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1603 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1606 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1608 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1610 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1611 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1612 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1614 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1616 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1618 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1621 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1623 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1625 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1627 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1628 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1629 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1631 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1633 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1635 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1636 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1645 See README there for more info.
1647 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1648 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1651 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1653 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1655 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1657 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1658 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1659 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1661 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1663 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1664 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1665 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1667 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1668 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1670 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1673 (oop goops describe)
1675 (oop goops active-slot)
1676 (oop goops composite-slot)
1678 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1679 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1680 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1682 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1684 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1685 in the default environment:
1687 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1688 %read-line write-line
1690 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1691 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1693 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1695 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1698 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1699 can be used for similar functionality.
1701 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1703 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1704 it defines two procedures:
1706 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1708 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1709 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1710 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1713 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1715 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1716 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1717 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1718 write large strings.
1720 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1722 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1723 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1725 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1727 for complete documentation.
1729 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1731 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1732 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1733 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1734 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1736 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1737 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1741 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1742 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1743 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1746 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1749 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1750 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1752 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1753 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1756 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1759 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1761 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1763 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1765 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1767 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1768 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1769 Scheme programs easier.
1771 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1772 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1773 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1774 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1775 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1778 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1779 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1781 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1784 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1786 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1787 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1788 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1791 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1793 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1795 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1796 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1797 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1798 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1799 was also ASCII, for example.
1801 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1803 tag - no replacement.
1804 fseek - replaced by seek.
1805 list* - replaced by cons*.
1807 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1811 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1812 (define m (make-safe-module))
1813 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1814 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1815 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1817 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1819 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1820 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1821 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1823 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1825 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1826 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1827 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1828 from the issues related to the module system.
1830 *** New function: load-extension
1832 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1834 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1836 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1837 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1838 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1840 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1842 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1843 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1844 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1845 support dynamic linking).
1847 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1849 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1850 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1851 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1852 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1855 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1856 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1857 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1858 library and initialize it explicitly.
1860 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1861 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1863 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1865 (define-module (foo bar))
1867 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1869 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1871 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1872 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1874 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1875 (null-environment 5)
1876 (interaction-environment)
1882 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1884 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1885 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1886 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1887 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1889 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1890 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1891 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1892 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1893 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1894 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1895 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1896 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1897 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1898 one eval to the next.
1900 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1901 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1902 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1903 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1904 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1906 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1907 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1908 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1909 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1910 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1911 used in a lexical environment.
1913 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1914 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1915 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1916 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1917 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1918 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1920 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1922 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1923 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1924 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1925 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1926 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1928 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1929 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1930 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1932 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1933 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1935 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1936 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1937 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1939 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1940 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1942 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1943 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1944 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1945 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1948 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1949 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1950 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1951 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1953 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1954 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1955 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1957 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1958 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1959 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1960 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1961 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1963 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1965 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1966 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1967 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1969 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1970 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1971 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1973 See manual for more info.
1975 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1977 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1978 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1979 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1981 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1983 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1984 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1985 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1987 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1988 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1989 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1990 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1992 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1994 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1995 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1997 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1998 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1999 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
2000 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
2001 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
2004 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
2005 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
2006 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
2007 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
2008 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
2009 successful and #f if it wasn't.
2011 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
2012 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
2013 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
2014 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
2015 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
2017 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
2018 objects are usually permanent.
2020 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
2021 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
2023 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
2025 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
2026 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
2029 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2033 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2038 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2040 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2041 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2042 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2043 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2045 ** New function `make-object-property'
2047 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2048 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2052 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2053 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2057 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2058 source properties eventually.
2060 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2062 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2063 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2064 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2066 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2067 will be removed in the next release.
2069 ** New define-module option: pure
2071 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2076 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2079 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2081 Export names NAME1 ...
2083 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2084 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2088 (define-module (foo)
2090 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2093 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2098 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2100 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2102 ** New function: port? X
2104 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2105 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2107 ** New function: file-port?
2109 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2111 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2113 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2114 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2115 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2116 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2117 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2119 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2121 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2122 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2123 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2124 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2125 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2128 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2130 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2131 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2132 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2133 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2136 ** New function: crypt password salt
2138 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2141 ** New function: chroot path
2143 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2145 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2147 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2150 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2152 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2154 ** New function: getpass prompt
2156 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2159 ** New function: flock file operation
2161 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2163 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2165 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2168 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2170 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2171 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2172 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2173 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2174 of the temporary file.
2176 ** New function: open-input-string string
2178 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2179 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2180 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2182 ** New function: open-output-string
2184 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2185 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2187 ** New function: get-output-string
2189 Return the contents of an output string port.
2191 ** New function: identity
2193 Return the argument.
2195 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2196 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2198 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2200 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2201 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2202 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2205 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2206 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2208 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2210 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2211 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2212 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2215 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2216 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2217 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2221 Use `identity' instead.
2227 ** Deprecated: return-it
2231 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2233 Use `string-length' instead.
2235 ** Deprecated: flags
2237 Use `logior' instead.
2239 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2241 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2242 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2243 port-for-each is more flexible.
2245 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2246 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2247 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2249 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2251 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2253 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2255 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2257 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2259 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2260 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2262 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2263 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2265 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2266 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2268 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2270 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2271 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2273 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2274 Use module system operations for all variables.
2276 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2278 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2281 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2283 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2284 The following bugs have been fixed:
2286 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2287 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2290 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2291 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2292 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2294 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2295 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2297 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2298 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2301 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2302 The expansion used to be like so:
2304 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2306 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2308 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2310 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2311 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2313 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2315 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2316 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2317 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2321 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2322 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2324 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2329 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2330 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2332 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2333 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2334 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2336 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2339 * Changes to the C interface
2341 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2343 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2344 with "_t". What a concept.
2346 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2348 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2350 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2354 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2355 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2357 *** C Functions removed
2359 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2360 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2361 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2362 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2363 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2364 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2365 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2367 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2369 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2371 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2373 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2375 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2376 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2378 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2380 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2383 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2385 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2387 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2389 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2390 Evaluation" in the manual.
2392 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2394 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2395 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2397 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2399 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2400 Constructors" in the manual.
2402 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2404 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2405 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2407 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2409 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2411 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2412 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2413 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2415 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2417 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2419 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2420 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2421 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2424 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2426 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2428 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2429 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2431 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2433 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2434 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2435 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2436 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2438 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2439 scm_primitive_property_ref
2440 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2441 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2443 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2444 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2446 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2448 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2449 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2450 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2451 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2453 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2455 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2456 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2457 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2458 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2459 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2460 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2461 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2463 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2464 scm_remember_upto_here
2466 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2468 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2470 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2471 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2473 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2475 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2477 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2479 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2481 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2483 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2484 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2485 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2486 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2487 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2488 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2490 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2492 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2494 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2495 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2496 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2498 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2500 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2501 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2502 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2504 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2506 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2507 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2510 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2513 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2514 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2517 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2519 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2521 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2523 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2525 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2527 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2529 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2530 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2531 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2532 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2533 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2534 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2535 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2536 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2537 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2538 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2539 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2540 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2541 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2542 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2543 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2545 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2546 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2547 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2548 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2549 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2550 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2551 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2552 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2553 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2554 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2555 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2556 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2557 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2558 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2559 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2560 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2561 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2562 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2563 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2564 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2565 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2566 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2567 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2568 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2569 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2570 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2571 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2572 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2573 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2575 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2577 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2579 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2580 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2582 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2584 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2586 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2588 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2590 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2592 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2594 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2596 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2598 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2601 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2602 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2604 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2606 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2608 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2610 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2612 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2614 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2616 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2618 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2621 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2623 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2625 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2627 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2628 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2630 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2631 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2633 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2635 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2636 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2637 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2639 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2641 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2643 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2644 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2646 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2647 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2648 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2649 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2651 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2652 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2653 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2655 Use the new ones from above instead.
2657 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2659 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2660 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2661 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2663 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2664 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2666 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2667 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2670 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2671 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2673 Use the new functions instead.
2675 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2678 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2680 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2682 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2685 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2687 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2690 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2692 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2695 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2696 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2697 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2699 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2701 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2702 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2704 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2705 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2706 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2707 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2710 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2712 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2713 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2714 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2715 inexact for an exact.
2717 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2718 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2719 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2722 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2723 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2724 accept an inexact argument.
2726 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2727 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2729 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2732 ** New number validation macros:
2733 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2737 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2739 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2740 scm_unprotect_object.
2742 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2744 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2746 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2749 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2751 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2755 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2757 * Changes to the distribution
2759 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2761 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2762 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2763 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2764 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2765 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2766 obtain these programs.
2767 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2768 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2770 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2771 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2772 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2773 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2774 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2776 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2777 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2778 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2779 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2783 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2786 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2787 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2788 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2789 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2791 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2793 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2795 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2796 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2798 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2799 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2801 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2802 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2804 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2805 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2806 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2807 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2809 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2811 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2815 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2816 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2818 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2820 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2821 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2823 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2824 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2825 number of objects of that kind.
2827 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2829 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2830 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2831 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2832 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2833 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2835 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2837 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2839 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2841 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2844 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2846 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2848 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2850 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2852 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2854 ** New command line option --debug
2856 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2858 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2860 ** New help facility
2862 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2863 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2864 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2865 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2866 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2867 (help) gives this text
2869 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2870 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2872 Examples: (help help)
2874 (help "output-string")
2876 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2878 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2880 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2881 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2884 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2885 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2886 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2889 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2890 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2891 use absolute filenames when possible.
2893 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2894 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2895 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2898 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2900 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2901 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2902 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2903 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2905 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2907 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2909 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2910 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2911 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2913 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2914 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2915 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2917 (read-enable 'positions)
2918 (debug-enable 'debug)
2920 ** Backtraces in scripts
2922 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2926 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2928 at the top of the script.
2930 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2931 The second enables backtraces.)
2933 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2935 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2936 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2937 substantially faster than before.
2939 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2940 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2942 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2943 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2945 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2947 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2948 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2949 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2951 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2952 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2953 when this hook is run in the future.
2955 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2956 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2958 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2960 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2961 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2964 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2965 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2966 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2968 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2969 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2971 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2972 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2974 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2975 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2976 in order not to need further allocation.)
2978 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2981 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2982 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2983 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2984 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2986 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2988 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2991 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2993 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2996 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2997 GC in percent of total heap size
3000 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
3001 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
3003 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
3005 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
3006 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
3008 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
3010 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
3011 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
3013 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
3015 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
3016 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
3020 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
3021 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
3023 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
3025 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3027 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
3029 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
3031 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3033 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3034 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3036 (simple-format port message . args)
3037 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3038 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3039 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3040 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3041 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3042 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3043 Does not add a trailing newline."
3045 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3047 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3048 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3050 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3051 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3053 ** Deprecated: list*
3055 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3057 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3059 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3060 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3062 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3063 is returned as result.
3065 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3067 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3069 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3071 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3072 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3075 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3077 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3079 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3080 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3082 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3084 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3086 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3088 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3090 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3092 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3094 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3096 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3097 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3098 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3100 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3103 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3105 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3106 the readability of argument checking.
3108 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3110 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3112 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3114 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3115 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3116 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3117 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3118 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3119 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3120 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3122 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3124 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3126 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3127 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3129 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3131 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3132 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3135 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3137 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3138 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3139 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3141 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3142 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3143 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3145 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3146 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3147 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3148 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3149 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3150 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3151 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3153 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3154 scm_end_input (object);
3155 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3156 ptob->flush (object);
3158 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3159 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3162 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3164 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3166 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3167 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3168 removed in a future version.
3170 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3172 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3173 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3174 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3175 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3177 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3178 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3180 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3183 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3185 in your configure.in.
3187 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3192 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3198 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3200 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3204 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3205 (define make-message string-append)
3207 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3209 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3213 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3218 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3222 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3224 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3225 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3227 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3229 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3230 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3231 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3232 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3233 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3234 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3236 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3237 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3238 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3240 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3241 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3242 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3245 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3246 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3247 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3248 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3249 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3251 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3252 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3253 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3254 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3255 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3256 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3257 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3259 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3261 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3262 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3263 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3265 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3266 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3267 KEY in the calling thread.
3269 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3270 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3271 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3272 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3273 associated with the key.
3275 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3277 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3278 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3280 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3282 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3283 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3284 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3286 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3288 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3289 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3291 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3293 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3295 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3296 returned is undefined.
3298 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3299 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3300 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3302 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3303 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3304 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3306 ** New C level GC hooks
3308 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3310 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3313 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3314 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3315 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3317 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3318 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3319 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3321 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3322 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3325 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3327 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3328 allocation parameters
3330 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3331 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3332 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3336 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3337 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3338 scm_default_max_segment_size
3340 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3342 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3343 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3345 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3347 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3348 object and count on the object being protected until
3349 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3351 The functions also have better time complexity.
3353 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3354 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3355 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3356 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3357 are no longer needed.
3359 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3361 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3362 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3363 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3364 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3366 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3368 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3370 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3372 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3373 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3374 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3375 until this issue has been settled.
3377 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3379 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3381 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3384 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3386 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3388 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3389 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3390 descriptors were checked.
3392 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3393 atomically written to a pipe.
3395 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3396 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3397 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3398 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3399 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3400 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3401 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3404 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3405 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3406 is changed without calling tzset.
3408 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3410 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3411 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3412 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3414 (define write-network-long
3415 (lambda (value port)
3416 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3417 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3418 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3420 (define read-network-long
3422 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3423 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3424 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3426 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3427 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3429 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3430 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3431 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3432 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3434 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3435 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3436 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3437 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3441 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3443 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3447 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3448 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3449 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3455 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3456 for a description of available commands.
3458 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3459 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3460 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3462 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3464 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3465 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3467 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3469 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3471 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3472 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3473 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3474 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3475 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3476 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3479 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3481 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3482 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3483 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3484 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3486 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3487 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3489 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3491 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3493 ** Readline support has changed again.
3495 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3496 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3497 to activate readline is now
3499 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3502 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3504 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3505 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3506 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3509 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3510 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3511 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3514 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3515 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3516 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3517 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3518 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3519 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3521 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3522 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3524 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3526 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3527 object it receives is the same string passed to
3528 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3529 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3530 string, not the suffix.
3532 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3533 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3534 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3536 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3538 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3539 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3540 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3541 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3544 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3546 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3548 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3549 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3550 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3551 appear from left to right.
3553 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3556 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3558 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3559 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3561 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3565 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3567 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3569 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3571 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3572 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3573 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3575 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3577 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3579 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3581 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3584 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3586 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3587 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3588 mentioning it here anyway.
3590 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3592 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3593 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3594 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3595 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3598 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3600 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3602 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3604 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3605 otherwise return #f.
3607 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3609 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3610 returned by `opendir'.
3612 ** New function: using-readline?
3614 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3616 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3618 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3619 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3621 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3623 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3625 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3626 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3627 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3629 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3631 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3632 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3634 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3636 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3637 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3638 documentation slots are not yet used.
3640 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3642 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3643 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3644 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3649 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3650 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3651 (string-append x y))
3653 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3654 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3656 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3657 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3658 be made in a clean way.]
3660 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3662 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3664 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3666 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3667 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3669 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3671 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3673 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3675 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3677 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3678 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3679 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3680 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3683 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3685 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3687 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3689 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3691 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3692 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3694 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3696 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3698 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3700 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3702 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3703 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3704 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3705 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3706 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3707 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3709 This should not make any difference for most users.
3711 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3713 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3714 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3716 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3718 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3719 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3720 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3721 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3722 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3724 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3726 It is now replaced by:
3728 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3730 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3731 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3733 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3735 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3736 This might change when we get the new module system.
3738 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3742 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3744 * Changes to mailing lists
3746 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3748 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3751 * Changes to the distribution
3753 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3755 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3756 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3757 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3758 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3759 you explicitly specify it.
3761 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3762 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3763 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3764 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3765 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3768 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3769 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3770 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3771 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3773 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3774 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3775 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3778 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3780 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3783 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3785 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3787 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3788 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3789 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3790 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3792 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3793 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3796 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3798 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3799 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3800 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3801 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3802 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3803 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3804 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3805 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3817 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3818 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3819 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3820 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3821 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3826 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3827 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3835 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3840 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3841 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3844 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3845 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3846 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3847 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3849 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3851 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3853 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3854 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3856 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3858 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3860 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3861 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3863 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3866 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3868 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3870 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3872 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3874 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3876 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3878 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3879 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3880 when the hook was created.
3882 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3883 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3884 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3885 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3886 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3887 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3888 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3889 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3890 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3892 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3893 the dlopen family of functions.
3895 ** New function `provided?'
3897 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3898 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3899 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3900 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3902 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3904 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3905 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3906 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3907 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3910 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3911 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3912 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3913 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3915 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3916 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3917 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3920 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3921 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3922 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3923 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3924 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3925 but with the flag set.
3927 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3929 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3930 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3932 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3933 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3934 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3935 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3936 available Scheme format implementations.
3938 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3939 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3940 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3941 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3942 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3943 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3944 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3945 output is to the current error port if available by the
3946 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3949 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3950 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3951 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3952 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3953 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3954 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3955 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3956 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3958 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3959 be executed at a time.
3962 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3964 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3965 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3966 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3968 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3969 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3970 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3971 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3972 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3973 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3974 general form of a directive is:
3976 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3978 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3980 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3982 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3983 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3984 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3987 Any (print as `display' does).
3991 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3995 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3999 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
4005 print number sign always.
4008 print comma separated.
4010 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
4016 print number sign always.
4019 print comma separated.
4021 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
4027 print number sign always.
4030 print comma separated.
4032 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4038 print number sign always.
4041 print comma separated.
4043 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4048 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4052 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4055 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4058 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4061 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4066 prints `y' and `ies'.
4069 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4072 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4077 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4081 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4084 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4085 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4087 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4090 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4091 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4093 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4096 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4098 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4100 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4103 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4105 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4107 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4110 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4113 The sign appears before the padding.
4121 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4123 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4128 print N page separators.
4138 newline is ignored, white space left.
4141 newline is left, white space ignored.
4146 relative tabulation.
4152 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4154 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4157 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4159 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4162 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4165 converts by `string-upcase'.
4168 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4170 jumps N arguments forward.
4173 jumps 1 argument backward.
4176 jumps N arguments backward.
4179 jumps to the 0th argument.
4182 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4184 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4185 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4187 take argument from N.
4190 true test conditional.
4193 if-else-then conditional.
4199 default clause follows.
4202 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4204 at most N iterations.
4207 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4210 args from the rest of arguments.
4213 args from the rest args (lists).
4224 aborts if N <= M <= K
4226 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4229 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4232 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4238 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4240 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4242 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4243 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4244 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4245 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4246 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4247 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4251 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4255 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4261 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4264 Print a `#\space' character
4266 print N `#\space' characters.
4269 Print a `#\tab' character
4271 print N `#\tab' characters.
4274 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4275 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4276 must be a positive decimal number.
4279 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4280 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4281 be processed by `read'.
4284 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4285 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4286 be processed by `read'.
4289 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4292 prints format version.
4295 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4296 and format it accordingly.
4298 *** Configuration Variables
4300 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4301 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4302 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4303 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4306 format:symbol-case-conv
4307 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4308 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4309 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4310 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4311 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4313 format:iobj-case-conv
4314 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4315 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4318 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4321 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4327 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4328 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4329 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4330 `format' padding style.
4333 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4334 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4335 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4336 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4340 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4341 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4342 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4345 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4346 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4347 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4348 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4349 parameters or modifiers)).
4352 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4354 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4356 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4357 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4359 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4360 string-downcase! functions.
4362 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4363 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4365 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4368 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4371 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4372 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4374 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4376 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4377 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4379 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4380 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4381 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4382 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4383 would if STRING were input.
4385 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4387 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4388 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4389 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4390 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4393 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4395 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4396 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4399 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4401 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4402 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4404 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4405 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4407 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4408 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4409 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4410 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4412 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4413 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4415 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4416 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4417 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4419 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4420 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4422 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4423 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4424 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4425 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4426 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4428 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4429 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4430 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4431 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4432 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4433 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4435 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4436 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4437 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4440 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4441 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4442 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4443 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4444 the following grammar:
4445 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4446 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4447 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4448 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4449 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4450 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4451 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4452 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4453 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4454 last option in its combination)
4456 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4457 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4458 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4459 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4461 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4462 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4463 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4465 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4466 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4467 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4469 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4470 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4471 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4472 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4473 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4474 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4475 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4476 ordinary argument strings.
4478 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4479 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4480 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4481 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4483 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4484 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4486 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4487 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4488 - a required option is omitted
4489 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4490 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4491 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4492 - an option predicate fails
4497 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4500 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4501 (verbose (required? #f)
4504 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4505 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4506 (predicate ,string?))))
4508 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4509 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4511 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4512 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4513 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4514 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4517 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4519 It will be removed in a few releases.
4521 ** New syntax: lambda*
4522 ** New syntax: define*
4523 ** New syntax: define*-public
4524 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4525 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4526 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4528 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4529 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4530 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4531 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4532 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4534 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4535 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4536 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4538 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4540 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4541 and examples for `lambda*':
4544 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4546 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4547 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4548 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4549 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4550 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4551 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4552 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4553 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4555 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4557 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4558 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4559 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4560 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4562 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4563 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4564 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4565 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4566 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4567 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4568 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4569 and until the procedure is called.
4571 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4573 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4574 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4575 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4576 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4577 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4578 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4579 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4580 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4581 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4582 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4584 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4585 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4586 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4587 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4590 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4592 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4593 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4594 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4595 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4597 ** New syntax: and-let*
4598 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4600 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4601 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4602 (<variable> <expression>)
4605 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4606 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4607 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4610 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4611 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4612 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4613 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4614 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4615 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4616 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4618 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4619 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4620 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4621 shadow earlier bindings.
4623 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4625 ** New sorting functions
4627 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4628 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4629 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4630 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4632 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4633 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4636 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4637 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4638 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4640 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4641 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4642 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4643 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4645 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4646 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4647 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4648 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4649 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4652 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4653 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4654 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4655 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4656 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4657 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4659 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4660 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4661 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4663 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4664 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4665 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4668 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4669 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4670 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4672 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4673 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4675 ** New built-in random number support
4677 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4678 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4679 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4680 returned have a uniform distribution.
4682 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4683 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4684 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4685 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4686 effect of the `random' operation.
4688 *** New variable: *random-state*
4689 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4690 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4691 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4692 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4693 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4696 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4697 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4698 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4699 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4700 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4702 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4703 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4704 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4705 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4706 initialized using SEED.
4708 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4709 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4710 range between 0 and 1.
4712 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4713 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4714 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4715 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4716 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4717 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4718 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4720 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4721 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4722 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4723 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4724 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4725 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4727 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4728 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4729 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4730 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4732 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4733 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4734 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4735 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4737 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4738 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4739 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4741 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4743 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4746 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4747 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4750 ** New function: make-guardian
4751 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4752 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4753 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4754 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4755 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4757 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4758 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4759 one object if at all.
4761 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4762 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4763 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4765 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4766 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4767 read again in last-in first-out order.
4769 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4770 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4772 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4774 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4775 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4776 file position is used.
4778 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4779 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4780 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4782 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4783 redefined using seek.
4785 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4786 size is not supplied.
4788 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4789 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4791 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4792 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4794 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4796 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4797 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4798 and returns the contents as a single string.
4800 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4801 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4802 lists in serial order.
4804 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4805 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4806 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4808 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4809 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4810 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4811 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4813 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4814 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4815 and #f if an error occured.
4817 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4819 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4820 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4821 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4822 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4824 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4826 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4829 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4831 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4834 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4838 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4839 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4841 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4842 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4846 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4848 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4850 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4851 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4853 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4855 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4856 might change when we get the new module system.
4858 ** The smob interface
4860 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4861 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4863 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4865 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4869 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4870 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4871 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4872 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4873 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4874 will be freed by the default free function.
4876 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4877 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4878 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4879 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4881 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4882 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4883 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4884 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4886 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4888 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4889 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4893 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4894 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4895 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4897 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4898 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4899 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4900 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4902 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4903 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4904 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4906 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4907 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4908 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4909 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4911 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4912 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4913 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4915 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4919 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4921 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4922 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4923 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4925 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4926 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4927 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4929 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4930 a string port's buffer.
4932 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4933 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4934 function pointers which together define the current random number
4935 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4936 number library functions.
4938 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4941 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4942 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4945 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4946 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4948 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4949 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4951 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4952 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4955 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4956 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4957 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4958 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4960 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4961 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4962 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4963 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4964 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4965 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4966 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4968 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4969 by libguile and the application.
4971 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4972 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4973 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4974 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4976 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4977 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4979 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4980 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4981 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4983 ** Random number library functions
4984 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4985 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4986 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4988 The default random state is stored in:
4990 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4991 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4992 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4997 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4999 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
5000 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
5001 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
5002 isn't a random state.
5004 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
5005 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
5007 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
5008 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
5009 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
5010 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
5012 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5013 Return 32 random bits.
5015 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5016 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
5018 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5019 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
5021 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5022 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
5024 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
5025 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5027 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
5028 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5029 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5033 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5035 * Changes to the distribution
5037 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5038 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5039 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5042 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5043 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5044 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5046 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5047 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5048 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5049 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5052 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5053 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5054 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5056 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5058 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5060 *** Function: batch-mode?
5062 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5065 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5067 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5068 case has not been implemented.
5070 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5071 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5072 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5075 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5076 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5078 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5080 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5082 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5084 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5085 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5088 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5089 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5090 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5091 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5094 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5096 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5097 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5098 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5099 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5100 find those libraries.
5102 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5103 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5106 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5108 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5109 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5110 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5111 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5113 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5114 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5115 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5119 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5121 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5122 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5123 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5126 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5127 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5128 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5129 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5131 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5132 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5135 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5136 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5137 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5138 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5139 compiler where to find the libraries.
5141 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5142 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5143 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5145 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5146 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5147 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5148 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5149 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5153 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5155 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5156 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5157 internationalization support.
5159 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5160 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5161 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5162 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5163 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5165 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5166 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5167 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5168 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5169 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5171 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5172 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5173 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5174 any GNU mirror site.
5176 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5178 ** New function: add-history STRING
5179 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5180 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5181 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5183 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5185 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5186 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5187 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5190 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5191 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5192 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5194 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5196 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5199 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5200 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5203 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5204 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5205 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5206 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5207 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5208 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5210 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5211 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5212 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5213 of the form mentioned above.
5215 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5216 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5217 returned in the special `rest' list.
5219 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5220 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5222 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5224 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5226 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5228 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5229 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5230 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5231 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5232 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5233 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5234 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5235 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5238 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5240 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5242 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5243 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5246 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5247 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5248 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5252 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5253 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5254 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5255 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5256 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5257 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5258 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5259 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5262 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5264 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5265 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5266 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5268 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5270 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5271 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5273 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5274 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5275 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5277 Why do we have this function?
5278 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5279 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5280 primitive, and display it differently, and
5281 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5282 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5285 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5286 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5289 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5290 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5291 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5292 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5294 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5295 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5298 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5299 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5301 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5303 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5304 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5305 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5306 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5307 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5308 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5309 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5312 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5314 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5315 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5317 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5318 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5319 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5320 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5321 properly continue the print chain.
5323 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5324 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5325 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5326 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5327 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5328 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5329 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5330 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5332 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5333 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5334 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5335 safest to not check for these pairs.
5337 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5338 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5339 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5340 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5342 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5344 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5345 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5347 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5349 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5351 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5352 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5353 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5355 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5356 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5357 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5359 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5360 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5361 the following functions and macros:
5363 Function: make-fluid
5365 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5366 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5367 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5368 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5369 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5371 Function: fluid? OBJ
5373 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5375 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5376 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5378 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5379 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5381 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5383 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5384 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5385 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5386 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5387 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5388 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5389 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5391 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5393 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5394 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5395 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5396 should evaluate to a fluid.
5398 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5400 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5401 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5402 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5403 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5404 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5406 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5409 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5411 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5413 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5415 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5418 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5419 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5420 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5421 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5422 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5425 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5426 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5427 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5429 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5430 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5431 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5433 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5434 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5435 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5436 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5438 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5439 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5440 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5441 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5443 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5444 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5445 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5446 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5448 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5449 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5450 their revealed counts set to zero.
5452 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5453 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5455 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5456 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5458 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5459 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5461 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5462 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5463 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5465 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5466 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5467 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5469 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5470 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5471 default environment inherited by child processes.
5473 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5474 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5475 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5477 The return value is unspecified.
5479 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5480 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5481 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5482 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5483 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5485 The return value is unspecified.
5487 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5488 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5496 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5497 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5500 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5503 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5504 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5505 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5507 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5508 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5509 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5510 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5513 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5514 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5516 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5517 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5518 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5519 the `environ' procedure.
5521 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5522 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5525 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5526 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5528 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5529 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5530 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5531 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5533 *** procedure: times
5534 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5535 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5536 return a selected component:
5539 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5543 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5546 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5550 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5551 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5555 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5556 terminated child processes.
5558 ** Removed: list-length
5559 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5560 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5562 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5564 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5566 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5568 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5569 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5570 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5571 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5573 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5574 extra complexity it introduces.
5576 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5577 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5579 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5580 variable to any non-empty value.
5582 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5583 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5585 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5587 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5588 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5590 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5592 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5593 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5595 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5597 ** vector handling routines
5599 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5600 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5601 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5602 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5603 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5605 ** pair and list routines
5607 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5610 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5612 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5615 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5617 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5619 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5620 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5621 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5622 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5623 site-specific initialization code.
5625 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5626 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5627 initialization processes.
5629 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5630 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5631 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5632 initialized properly.
5634 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5635 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5636 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5638 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5639 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5640 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5641 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5642 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5644 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5646 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5647 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5648 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5649 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5650 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5652 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5653 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5654 which look like this:
5657 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5659 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5660 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5663 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5664 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5667 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5669 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5670 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5671 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5673 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5674 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5675 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5676 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5677 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5679 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5680 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5682 int (*free) (SCM port);
5683 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5684 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5685 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5689 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5690 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5691 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5693 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5696 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5697 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5698 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5700 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5701 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5702 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5705 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5709 struct timeval *timeout);
5711 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5712 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5713 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5714 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5715 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5716 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5718 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5719 scm_catch_body_t body,
5721 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5724 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5725 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5726 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5727 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5728 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5729 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5731 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5733 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5736 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5737 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5738 spawning threads from application C code.
5740 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5741 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5742 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5743 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5744 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5745 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5747 ** Removed functions:
5749 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5750 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5752 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5754 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5755 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5757 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5759 ** mbstrings are now removed
5761 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5762 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5764 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5766 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5767 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5768 their new names and arguments:
5770 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5771 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5772 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5773 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5776 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5778 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5780 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5783 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5785 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5786 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5787 pass a #f arg to catch.
5789 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5791 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5792 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5795 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5796 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5797 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5798 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5799 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5800 reclaim its storage.
5802 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5803 worrying that some other function you call will call
5804 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5805 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5806 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5807 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5810 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5812 * Changes to the distribution
5814 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5815 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5818 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5819 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5821 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5822 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5824 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5826 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5827 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5828 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5830 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5832 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5833 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5834 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5835 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5836 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5837 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5839 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5840 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5841 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5844 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5845 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5846 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5847 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5849 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5850 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5851 libraries to your link command:
5853 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5854 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5855 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5856 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5858 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5859 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5860 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5862 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5864 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5865 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5868 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5870 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5871 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5872 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5873 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5874 searched is system dependent.
5876 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5878 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5880 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5882 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5883 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5885 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5887 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5888 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5889 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5890 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5891 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5894 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5896 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5897 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5898 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5899 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5900 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5902 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5904 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5905 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5907 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5909 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5910 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5911 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5914 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5916 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5917 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5918 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5919 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5921 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5922 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5924 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5926 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5927 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5929 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5931 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5932 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5940 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5942 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5943 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5944 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5945 a more informative way.
5947 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5948 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5949 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5950 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5951 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5952 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5954 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5955 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5958 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5959 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5960 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5963 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5964 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5965 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5966 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5967 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5968 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5970 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5971 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5972 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5973 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5976 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5977 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5978 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5979 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5980 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5981 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5983 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5984 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5985 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5986 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5987 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5989 *** regexp functions
5991 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5992 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5993 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5995 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5996 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5997 with SCSH regular expressions.
5999 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
6000 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
6001 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
6002 position of STR at which to begin matching.
6004 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
6005 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
6006 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
6007 `string-match' returns `#f'.
6009 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
6010 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
6011 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
6012 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
6013 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
6014 match strings against the compiled regexp.
6016 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
6017 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
6018 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
6019 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
6020 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
6022 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6024 **** Constant: regexp/extended
6025 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
6026 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
6027 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
6029 **** Constant: regexp/icase
6030 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
6031 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6033 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6034 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6036 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6039 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6040 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6041 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6043 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6044 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6045 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6047 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6048 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6049 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6050 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6051 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6054 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6056 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6057 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6058 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6059 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6060 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6061 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6063 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6064 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6065 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6067 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6068 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6071 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6072 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6074 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6075 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6076 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6077 may be one of the following arguments:
6079 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6081 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6083 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6084 the regexp match is written.
6086 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6087 following the regexp match is written.
6089 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6090 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6093 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6094 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6095 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6096 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6097 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6098 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6100 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6103 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6104 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6105 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6106 written out to PORT.
6108 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6109 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6110 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6111 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6112 will return after processing a single match.
6114 *** Match Structures
6116 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6117 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6118 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6119 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6120 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6121 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6124 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6125 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6126 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6127 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6128 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6130 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6131 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6132 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6134 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6135 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6136 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6137 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6138 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6140 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6141 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6143 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6144 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6146 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6147 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6149 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6150 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6152 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6153 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6154 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6155 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6157 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6158 Return the original TARGET string.
6160 *** Backslash Escapes
6162 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6163 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6164 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6165 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6166 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6167 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6169 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6170 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6171 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6172 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6173 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6174 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6175 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6176 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6178 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6179 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6180 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6181 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6182 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6183 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6184 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6186 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6187 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6188 return the resulting string.
6190 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6191 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6192 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6193 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6194 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6195 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6196 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6197 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6198 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6199 translated to the single character `*'.
6201 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6202 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6203 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6204 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6205 consecutive backslashes:
6207 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6209 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6210 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6211 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6213 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6214 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6215 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6216 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6217 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6218 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6220 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6222 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6223 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6224 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6225 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6226 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6227 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6228 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6229 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6230 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6231 cumbersome escape syntax.
6233 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6235 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6237 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6239 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6242 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6244 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6246 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6249 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6250 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6251 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6252 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6253 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6255 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6256 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6257 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6258 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6259 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6260 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6261 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6264 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6265 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6266 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6269 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6270 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6272 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6273 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6274 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6275 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6276 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6277 installed, you can say:
6279 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6282 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6284 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6285 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6286 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6287 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6288 new dynamic roots and threads.
6291 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6293 * Changes to the distribution.
6295 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6297 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6298 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6299 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6300 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6301 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6302 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6303 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6304 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6306 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6309 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6310 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6315 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6317 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6318 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6320 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6321 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6322 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6323 the (command-line) function.
6324 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6325 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6326 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6328 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6329 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6330 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6331 command line arguments
6332 -ds do -s script at this point
6333 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6334 -h, --help display this help and exit
6335 -v, --version display version information and exit
6336 \ read arguments from following script lines
6338 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6339 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6341 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6344 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6348 (main (command-line))
6350 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6352 ekko a speckled gecko
6354 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6355 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6356 following list of command-line arguments:
6358 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6360 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6361 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6362 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6363 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6364 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6366 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6368 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6370 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6371 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6374 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6375 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6376 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6377 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6379 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6380 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6381 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6382 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6384 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6388 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6392 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6394 ekko a speckled gecko
6396 Unix expands this into
6398 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6400 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6401 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6403 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6405 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6406 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6408 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6409 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6410 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6411 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6412 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6413 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6414 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6415 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6416 it only terminates the argument list.)
6417 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6418 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6419 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6420 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6421 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6422 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6423 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6424 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6426 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6428 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6429 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6430 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6431 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6432 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6434 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6435 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6436 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6438 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6440 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6441 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6442 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6443 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6446 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6447 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6448 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6450 * Changes to Scheme functions
6452 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6453 and disabled by default.
6455 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6456 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6457 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6458 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6460 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6462 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6464 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6465 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6467 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6468 (read-set! keywords #f)
6470 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6471 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6472 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6475 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6476 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6477 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6480 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6481 support for Scheme functions.
6483 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6484 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6485 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6486 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6489 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6490 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6491 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6494 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6495 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6496 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6499 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6500 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6501 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6502 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6503 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6504 display the result as a prompt.
6505 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6507 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6508 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6509 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6512 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6513 procedure of zero arguments.
6515 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6516 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6517 argument is bound in the current module.
6519 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6520 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6521 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6522 public bindings into the current module.
6524 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6525 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6527 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6528 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6530 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6531 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6533 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6534 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6536 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6537 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6539 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6540 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6541 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6542 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6543 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6545 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6546 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6547 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6548 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6550 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6553 ** Changes to I/O functions
6555 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6556 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6557 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6559 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6560 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6561 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6563 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6564 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6566 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6567 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6568 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6569 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6571 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6573 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6574 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6576 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6577 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6578 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6579 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6580 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6583 'trim omit delimiter from result
6584 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6585 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6586 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6588 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6590 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6591 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6593 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6594 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6595 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6596 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6597 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6599 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6600 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6601 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6603 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6604 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6605 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6606 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6608 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6609 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6611 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6612 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6614 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6616 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6617 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6618 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6619 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6620 a delimiting character.
6621 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6623 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6624 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6625 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6626 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6627 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6628 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6630 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6631 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6633 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6634 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6635 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6637 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6638 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6639 the array to read and write.
6641 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6642 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6645 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6647 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6650 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6651 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6652 Values for COMMAND are:
6654 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6655 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6656 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6657 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6658 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6659 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6660 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6661 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6663 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6665 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6666 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6667 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6668 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6669 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6670 corresponding return set will be the same.
6672 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6675 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6676 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6677 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6678 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6679 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6680 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6681 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6682 special file being created.
6684 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6685 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6687 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6688 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6689 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6690 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6691 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6692 and originating address.
6694 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6695 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6696 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6698 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6701 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6702 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6705 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6706 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6707 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6708 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6709 this function returns #f.
6711 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6712 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6713 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6716 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6717 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6718 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6721 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6722 a valid STATUS value.
6724 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6726 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6727 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6729 Component Accessor Setter
6730 ========================= ============ ============
6731 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6732 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6733 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6734 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6735 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6736 year tm:year set-tm:year
6737 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6738 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6739 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6740 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6741 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6743 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6744 describing the host system:
6747 ============================================== ================
6748 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6749 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6750 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6751 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6752 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6754 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6755 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6756 system's user database:
6759 ====================== =================
6760 user name passwd:name
6761 user password passwd:passwd
6764 real name passwd:gecos
6765 home directory passwd:dir
6766 shell program passwd:shell
6768 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6769 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6770 system's group database:
6773 ======================= ============
6774 group name group:name
6775 group password group:passwd
6777 group members group:mem
6779 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6780 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6784 ========================= ===============
6785 official name of host hostent:name
6786 alias list hostent:aliases
6787 host address type hostent:addrtype
6788 length of address hostent:length
6789 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6791 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6792 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6796 ========================= ===============
6797 official name of net netent:name
6798 alias list netent:aliases
6799 net number type netent:addrtype
6800 net number netent:net
6802 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6803 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6807 ========================= ===============
6808 official protocol name protoent:name
6809 alias list protoent:aliases
6810 protocol number protoent:proto
6812 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6813 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6817 ========================= ===============
6818 official service name servent:name
6819 alias list servent:aliases
6820 port number servent:port
6821 protocol to use servent:proto
6823 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6824 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6827 ======================================== ===============
6828 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6829 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6830 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6831 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6833 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6834 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6835 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6837 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6838 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6840 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6841 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6843 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6844 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6846 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6848 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6850 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6851 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6852 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6854 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6855 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6856 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6857 return the remaining characters as a string.
6859 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6860 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6861 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6863 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6865 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6867 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6870 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6873 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6874 and returns the array
6876 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6877 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6878 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6880 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6882 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6883 symbol's value from C code:
6885 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6886 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6887 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6888 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6890 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6891 without assigning them a value.
6893 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6894 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6895 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6897 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6898 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6899 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6901 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6902 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6904 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6905 doesn't actually care about that.
6907 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6908 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6909 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6911 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6912 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6913 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6914 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6915 which we have just created and initialized.
6917 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6918 should one occur. We call it like this:
6919 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6921 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6922 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6923 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6924 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6925 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6926 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6929 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6930 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6931 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6932 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6933 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6934 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6935 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6938 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6939 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6940 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6941 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6942 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6945 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6946 scm_internal_catch, except:
6948 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6949 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6950 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6951 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6954 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6955 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6956 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6958 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6959 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6960 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6961 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6964 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6965 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6966 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6968 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6969 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6970 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6971 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6972 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6974 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6975 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6976 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6978 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6979 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6980 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6982 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6983 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6985 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6986 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6987 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6990 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6991 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6992 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6993 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6994 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6995 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6996 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6999 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
7000 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
7002 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
7003 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
7004 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
7005 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
7006 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
7009 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
7010 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
7012 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
7013 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
7016 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
7017 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
7019 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7022 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
7023 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
7024 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
7025 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
7026 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
7027 given the following arguments:
7029 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7031 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7033 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7035 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7038 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7039 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7040 command-line arguments.
7042 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7043 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7044 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7045 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7046 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7047 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7050 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7053 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7054 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7056 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7057 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7059 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7060 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7061 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7062 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7064 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7065 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7067 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7068 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7069 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7070 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7072 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7073 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7075 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7076 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7078 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7080 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7081 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7082 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7085 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7086 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7088 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7089 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7094 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7097 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7099 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7100 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7101 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7102 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7104 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7106 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7108 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7109 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7110 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7111 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7112 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7113 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7114 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7115 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7116 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7117 for more information.
7119 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7120 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7122 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7123 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7124 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7125 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7126 following two lines at the top of the file:
7128 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7131 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7132 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7133 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7135 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7137 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7139 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7142 (display (car args))
7143 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7145 (loop (cdr args)))))
7148 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7149 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7150 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7151 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7152 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7153 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7157 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7160 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7163 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7165 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7166 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7167 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7168 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7169 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7172 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7173 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7174 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7175 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7176 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7179 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7182 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7183 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7184 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7187 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7188 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7189 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7191 to see a backtrace, and
7192 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7193 to see them by default.
7197 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7199 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7201 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7202 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7205 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7206 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7207 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7208 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7211 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7212 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7213 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7214 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7215 functions which inspired them.
7217 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7218 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7222 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7224 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7226 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7227 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7230 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7231 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7232 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7234 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7235 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7236 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7237 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7238 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7240 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7242 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7243 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7244 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7247 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7250 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7252 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7253 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7254 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7255 above should serve their purposes.
7257 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7258 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7259 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7260 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7262 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7265 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7266 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7267 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7268 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7270 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7271 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7272 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7273 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7275 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7276 for the `read' function.
7279 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7280 to that of `integer?'.
7282 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7283 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7285 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7286 it simply returns the object's property list.
7288 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7289 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7290 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7291 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7293 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7295 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7298 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7300 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7301 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7303 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7305 void (*main_func) (),
7308 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7309 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7310 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7311 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7312 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7314 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7315 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7316 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7317 know which arguments have been processed.
7319 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7320 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7321 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7322 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7323 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7325 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7326 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7327 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7328 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7329 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7330 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7331 people from making that mistake.
7333 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7334 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7336 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7338 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7342 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7345 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7346 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7347 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7348 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7351 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7352 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7353 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7354 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7357 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7358 have been added to the Guile library.
7360 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7361 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7362 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7365 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7366 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7367 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7369 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7370 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7371 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7372 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7373 argument from the list.
7376 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7379 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7380 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7382 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7383 to a Scheme port object.
7385 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7386 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7391 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7393 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7394 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7395 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7396 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7397 code as a special datatype.
7399 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7400 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7401 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7402 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7403 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7406 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7407 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7408 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7409 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7410 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7412 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7415 Copyright information:
7417 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7419 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7420 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7421 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7422 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7424 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7425 of this document, or of portions of it,
7426 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7427 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7432 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"